Scorpio's Eight
by IlovetowriteSMP
Summary: Robert gets a crew together to rob Sonny. Jason, Carly, Zander, Lucky, Emily, Spinelli, Lulu, Skye, Luke, Jagger, Stone, Maxie, Jax, Ned, Faith and Lois featured in this story.
1. The Job

The rich business man stepped into the back room at the blues club and tried to strike a deal. He had heard rumors about the real way Luke and Robert made their money, and it wasn't selling shots of tequila to college kids.

"This kind of job" Ned said "should be a piece of cake, really."

_Famous last words, _Luke thought as he shared a look with his partner.

Robert Scorpio was an ex-jewel thief. At least, that is what he told his former wife.

Anna was out of "the life" too. She left him and the business on the same day, nearly one year ago. Their daughter said the price of seeing their granddaughter would be going straight.

Anna gave in to Robin. Robert didn't.

They hadn't said a civil word to each other since Anna moved in with his brother, Malcolm, an ex-con .

Robert, when he was sober and in the mood to be honest with himself- which was not very often- knew damn well that he had lost Anna all on his own.

The day she left him was the start to the end of his days as a thief. But going straight hadn't been the key to making his life ideal. In fact, it was damn boring.

"Easy? Oh yeah?" Robert asked

"For a man of your considerable talents..." Ned started

"Talents? You been talking to the ladies down on Front Street?" Luke asked

Robert shot his partner a dirty look the then told Ned, "Mr. Quatermaine, I don't know what it is _you think _I do for a living. But Spencer and I, we sell booze and then spend the other half of the year sunning ourselves down in old Mexico."

Ned whispered, "It's cool. I won't rat you out."

Luke busted out laughing. Robert shook his head, as if to say _Duh._

Robert told Ned, "I never assumed you might. My brother hates me right now. But he hates people who mess with me more." He paused and gave Ned a hard stare." And do you know what Mac Scorpio loves?"

"Blowing things up." Ned answered

Robert smiled, but his eyes were hard.

Luke said, "You have been doing some snooping, I see. Coming up with such colorful stories about me and my associates. Who planted these fantasies in your head?"

"Vivian De Russo." Ned said

"Oh," Luke said softly, thinking of the red head socialite from New York City.

She wasn't like his other flings, he had hinted their could be more with her. Later he blamed it on the fact he met her on the anniversary of his divorce with Laura. He had been feeling sorry for himself, got drunk, ended up first in her limo then in her high rise million dollar apartment in Trump Towers.

His heists stories, the ones he told Robert he never shared with _an_y woman, got her hot. So he just kept talking till dawn, in between the steaming sessions in the sack.

Luke said softly, "You traitor, Vivi."

Robert rolled his eyes.

Ned said, "I dated Vivian years ago myself. And when I spoke to her recently she mentioned knowing Luke. She seemed to think you would do_ just about anything _for the right amount of money. And if you are half as good as she says...

Robert said, "We don't need the 100 dollar butter up. Make it down and dirty. What do you want stolen and from who?"

"A painting," Ned said. "From Sonny Corinthos."

"Worth?" Luke asked

"150,000 dollars."

Robert laughed. "You came to the wrong place, Quatermaine. I got out of that kind of business long ago." Actually it had been only six months, but they were long lonely months. " And those small potatoes won't lure me back in."

"I need this done." Ned insisted

"Why?" Luke asked "Because Sonny is shacked up with your ex old lady. So you want to steal his artwork. That's not really much of a punishment, Nedly. "

Ned glared at him. "I'll have you know that Sonny values that painting more than anything else he owns. He bought it on his honeymoon with Lily. He took what I love most and now I want to do the same for him."

Robert said, "Listen, I don't take contracts anymore. Haven't in years. When was the last time, Luke?"

"Panama in '95."

"Oh, yes. Panama. Ugly scene that ended up being. No, Quatermaine, that is my first rule now. _If I _don't think of the heist_, I _don't do the heist."

"I will pay you 15 million dollars." Ned said

Robert whistled then looked at Luke, "I just thought of a heist..."

**WHEN NED WAS GONE**, Luke and Robert went over the details.

"How many you think we need?" Robert said "Me, you, and three more. Five should do it, right?"

"For that fortress Corinthos is barricaded up in. Nah. Gonna need more than five."

Seeing his cut shrinking, Robert groaned. "All right, we'll go six."

"Seven and we are going to need a dame."

Robert shook his head, "We said no more dames. Ever. Stick a wig on Smith."

Luke lit a cigar, and told his longtime partner, "Sonny likes pretty faces. And I know one he is a sucker for."

"You aren't thinking of...?" Robert shook his head. "She'll never do it. Do you _even know _where to find her?"

"Has finding a woman ever been a problem for me?" Luke asked

"You get the bait, then. I'll round up the guys."

"The _whole _crew?"

Mac had been one of their regular guys for years, loyal to a fault, good at what he did, never pinched after that first time twenty years ago. But Robert hadn't even spoken to him since the day Anna moved into to Mac's house down on the lake.

Whenever he thought of them in bed together... Robert saw red.

"Mac can be replaced," Robert said.

"Not easily."

"Let me worry about it."

Luke took a drag on the cigar, "I told you we should of never broken up the crew. Everything has gone to hell in the last six months."

"Well, Spencer, 15 million can make hell seem like a lot cooler place to be."


	2. The Lovers and the Kid

**Chapter Two- The Lovers and The Kid**

**You didn't just walk into the front door **of Jason Morgan's home without knocking. Not if you wanted to live.

But that is just what Robert did. He picked the lock on the room above Jake's, knowing full well Jason would hear him doing it, and then kicked the door open.

Jason was about to squeeze the trigger of the glock he held when he saw it was his old boss. He spit out a curse word.

"You ever gonna stop pushing your luck?" Jason questioned him, without any real anger.

"What fun would there be in that?" Robert grinned.

Jason shoved the gun back in the holster he wore.

He rolled his head from shoulder to shoulder and stretched. He looked exhausted, a ghost of a man.

"Still sleeping like crap?" Robert asked

Jason ignored him.

"Well, I am glad to see you, at least, still have your instincts. There's a job."

"Yeah?" Jason's eyes lit up for the first time in months.

Being alone in this room was starting to wear on him.

Being without _her_ was starting to feel like normal and he hated that more than he hated being out of the life.

Their last big score was supposed to have been enough to make them all wealthy for life. And it was. All eight of the crew could retire to sunny Florida any time they wanted.

Too bad they weren't the retiring types.

"When?" Jason asked

"First meeting, tomorrow at noon. The usual place." Robert said

Jason nodded. Then smiled. It would be good to get back to work.

He couldn't help but wonder if this new gig would be enough to lure her back home, _finally_.

**LUKE watched her shooting pool **in the dive bar in Hell's Kitchen. She was hustling two college guys. Fish in a barrel, it was beneath her reallyto take them.

But she would anyway.

The juke box played the Red Hot Chili Pepper song Dani California, _"She's a runner, rebel and a stunner.  
On her merry way saying, Baby what you gonna?_

_Looking down the barrel of a_

_hot metal 45, just another way to survive..."_

Luke sidled up to her and said, "Miss me?"

She narrowed her eyes, showing no surprise. She had saw him come in twenty minutes before.

"Not in the least." she told him.

She pulled back the stick and then jabbed the eight ball, sending it shooting across the table and into the corner pocket.

The college kids grumbled but paid up, 500 bucks.

"Thanks, fellas." Carly said, smiling. Her voice was filled with innocence when she said, "I can't believe I was so good. And the first time I ever played, too."

After they walked away, Luke said, "Caroline, this is pathetic. You don't need the money and what thrill could there be in this small time short con?"

"Got to get your kicks where you can sometimes."

Luke told her, "I got something much more high caliber you could use your skills on."

"No." Carly tossed the stick onto the table and turned to grab her purse.

Softly Luke taunted her, "You gonna let that man chase you out of town? Keep you from ever going back?"

"There is nothing to go back for," Carly said, walking away. She weaved through the crowd in the bar and out the front door.

Luke caught up to her outside.

He leaned close and said, " One share of 15 million and a chance to pay back an old enemy, that mobster with the heart of coal. Sound like a good enough reason to face Jason again?"

**ROBERT walked into the gym**. The Kid was making quite a name for himself. And it something legit, too. Robert almost hated taking him away from it, when this could lead to something respectable for him.

But boxing wouldn't pay the bills as easy as stealing.

And The Kid was great at stealing.

Robert watched as his former employee plummeted the body of his sparring partner. Then he threw a beautiful right hook and the guy hit the mat, out cold, that's all they wrote, folks.

The coach lifted the ropes and climbed into the ring. He said, "Smith, I told you to take it easy during sparring matches. You gonna put all my other boxers in the hospital you keep this up."

Zander shrugged. He only had two modes- full out and completely full out. Taking it easy had never been his strong suit.

Robert called out, "Hey, Kid, you got any vacation time due you?"

Zander turned and met his eyes.

The coach said, "We have a strict training schedule he needs to keep to. Who you? His pops or something?"

"Something," Robert said. His eyes stayed on Zander, " You coming, Kid?"

The gloves came off, Zander tossed them on the floor of the ring, each one hitting with a thud.

He left the building without another word.

_NOTE- Love the song Dani California but I am not sure about the lyrics. There must be a thousand versions on the net. The song shows up in later chapters so bear with me on the exact wording._


	3. Getting a Crew Together

Note- Thanks for the reviews so far! They helped me to add a little more to the chapters I have, though this story is far from finished. As usual I will be updating every few days.

Chapter Three- Getting a Crew Together

Mac sat out on his back deck, drinking coffee.

It was great coffee, from South America, and for the cost of it he could have bought some well aged wine, if that was his thing. But he liked coffee. Expensive hand pressed beans drip brewed and sipped slowly.

Black, steaming hot, heaven in a cup.

Except, ever since he lost his job, everything he put in his mouth tasted the same.

Like piss.

He needed to get the hell out of this exile his brother cast him into. But that would mean turning on her, and that was not an option.

Anna walked out the door, dressed head to toe in black.

Mac perked up. "Who you been talking on the phone with for the last hour?"

Anna ignored the question and moved in front of his chair.

"You bored, Scorpio?"

He gave her a look that said, Do you even have to ask?

She said, "Well, dust off your tools of the trade. We've been commissioned."

Such a high class word for what they would be doing. Snatch and grab, con and scheme was more like it.

Whatever Anna had in mind, Mac was up for it. This kicking back lifestyle was spanking his ass, and not in a good way.

He stood up. "We gonna need more people?" His voice was hopeful.

Maybe this was a way to approach Robert again, keep it all business and not personal.

Anna shook her head. "Face it, Mac, he doesn't have any use for either of us, not now. You gonna be able to handle that?"

Mac studied her face. He had known her too long to start lying to her now. "Doubt it."

He paused, ran his hand through his hair. Thought of the wife that kicked him out, the brother who wouldn't even talk to him. The niece who wanted her parents and uncle to be anything but criminals.

Mac asked her, "You ever gonna tell him we aren't sleeping together?"

"That he could even think we would is the exact reason he will never know he was wrong," Anna said. "You want to keep slacking because Robert won't work with us or you want to get back to what we do best?"

Mac knew only working could give him any pleasure now.

With a glint in his eye, feeling the old rush starting to run through his veins, he asked. "So, what's the job?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

LUKE called Robert, "Got the dame. How you doing?"

"Got The Hitter, The Kid and Romeo. But I can't locate J," Robert told him.

"You check the strip clubs?"

"Of course."

"Jake's?" Luke asked

"And every other dive bar in fifty miles. Yeah, that was fun. Met some nice ladies."

Luke said, "I bet. So after the viagra wore off, where else did you look?"

"The docks, the condo in Miami, I even called your darling daughter."

"He wasn't with her, was he?" Luke blamed his white hair on the three months Lulu dated The Jackal.

He could work with the guy or the guy could date his daughter.

But not both.

"No." Robert said "I got a man I know down in Nashville on route to Oakfield right now."

Luke said, "We're on the road, too. Carly is pissed. Although, I think she should be thanking me. I saved her from a life of conning toddlers out of their lunch money."

"So why is she coming if she's still ticked off?"

"For revenge," Luke said, he smiled as he glanced at her in the passenger seat. " The dish that is best served cold is still Sweet Caroline's favorite meal."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

DOWN IN OAKFIELD, a man kicked down a hotel room door, gun drawn.

The couple on the bed froze, untangled, and the guy cried "I didn't know she was married!"

"You did too!" the woman complained.

The intruder said "You," and pointed at Spinelli "have a job to do. Scorpio wants you on a plane within the hour."

Spinelli smacked the ass of his bed partner, "Catch you later, my sexy alligator. Papa got to go to work." 


	4. The Art of the Long Con

Chapter 4 The Art of the Long Con

The back room at Luke's Bar was crowded with Scorpio's Eight, minus the outcast, Mac.

Luke and Robert were at the front of the room in front of a dry erase board.

Carly sat on a desk, her legs crossed, her black leather skirt resting high on her thigh.

Around a nearby table sat Lucky, Spinelli and Jason.

Zander leaned against a wall, his arms crossed over his chest.

"All right, here's the set up. Ned has his knickers in a bunch over Lois taking up with Corinthos." Robert said "And our client seems to think the most hurtful thing he can do to pay our mark back is steal this painting called The Ever Faithful. It's by some obscure artist out of Spain. The thing looks like a naked women with paint splotches all over the good parts."

"Is the painting one of a kind? Gonna fetch top dollar on the black market?" Zander asked

Luke told them, "That's the strange thing. Street value of this baby runs about 1 and half K."

"He's going pay millions for something worth thousands ," Zander said "Makes no sense."

"Doesn't have to." Robert said " This is about honor, not bank. If Quatermaine is foolish enough to invest the family fortune in a vendetta, then we will get him his merchandise and relieve him of his 15 million. "

"I agree with Kid," Jason said "The angles don't add up."

"Wouldn't be the first time they didn't." Carly said "Doesn't mean the job ain't legit."

Carly glared at Jason. He enjoyed it, the fire in her look sent one rushing through his body.

Spinelli yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Just tell me my deal in all this. Let me know what you need hacked, jacked or forged so I can catch some sleep before this all goes down. Your buddy from Nashville," he looked at Robert "pulled me out of the bed of a very frisky kitty. An Angelina look alike with bigger ya yas and moves that Brad has ever seen. Then put me on the first plane back here. Commercial. Didn't we move beyond that years ago?"

"We did." Luke said "You wasted all your cash on that pyramid scheme."

"Thank God crime pays so well that I can earn it all back." Spinelli said.

Lucky crossed his arms over his broad chest, stretching the fabric of his black t-shirt taut.

Lucky asked , with a nod of his head that said get on with it already, "We stealing or chatting?"

"Lay it out for them, Luke," Robert said.

Luke started drawing on the board, where Greystone was already sketched out.

"It is a straight drop in," Luke said referring to the fact it would be easy money.

Lucky chuckled, "Heard that one before."

Nothing was ever easy in the Art of the Long Con.

Lucky knew that the odds started off against them and only got worse as time went on, the lies and cover-ups threatening to fold the whole house of cards at anytime.

But Romeo, as they called him, was still young and all of this getting away with heists had left him cocky. The last six months of unemployment, and the trying to settle down with the girl who thought he could be a better man, had left him bored and hungry for some excitement.

Robbing the local mob boss would fit the bill just fine.

Luke ignored his son and kept going, " We will hit Corinthos with a Houdini," meaning an illusion to make him look away "by having Caroline renew their old affair. Lure him away from home, the painting, and Lois all at the same time. While she is convincing him the lust is still alive we will be sneaking into the compound."

Carly said, "In other words, you got the simple part and I get the scuzz ball."

Luke said, " You liked that scuzz ball well enough last time you were in town."

Jason butted in, "Can we get to the specifics now or we gonna putz around for a few more hours?"

Robert studied Jason's face while Luke laid out the rest of the plan. The best thing about Morgan was that he was ice cold in the crunch. He could drop a guy with a submission hold or a bullet, tranquilize him or send him back to God, made no difference to The Hitter.

Until he fell in love for the first time.

Sure over the years there was always a crazy vibe between him and Carly. Everyone figured they were sleeping together on the side. But something changed right before the group broke up.

Jason had strolled into Carly's cottage in the woods, the story went he was there to finally say those three little words she had given up on hearing from him ever, and found her in the act with Sonny.

Saw more than he wanted to, right with his own blue eyes.

And though none of Scorpio's Eight knew all the real details, it had changed the man, softened The Hitter, almost as if he just realized in that moment what a heart could feel. And that was not a good thing.

Not good at all. Not when their lives depended on him not feeling anything.

You didn't want your muscle crying over some woman who did him wrong right when the bullets started flying.

The team had to work as a unit. Spinelli had understood that. He walked away from Lulu after Luke told him it was the crew or the girl.

But no one had the guts to tell The Hitter, years ago, that Sweet Caroline, as they called her sometimes, used to go by another name when she was grifting in Florida as a teenager.

They called her The Heart Breaker.

"One thing I don't get about this," Jason said when Luke finished talking. "and correct me if I am wrong. But this job breaks Rule Number One and Rule Number Two."

Jason looked at the other guys at the table. "Am I right or am I right?"

"If I don't think of a heist, I don't do a heist," Lucky said the first one.

"Never steal from your lover or your neighbors." Zander said the second rule. Then added, "Both will rat your ass out." he snapped his fingers " like that."

"It's too close to home for too small of pay out," Jason said, standing up.

"Yeah, but none of us have anything better to do." Luke said "And playing shuffle board ain't never been my forte. I'm a grifter. So are you. You want to work? Or you have some more moping left to do?"

Carly looked at Jason, trying to gauge his reaction. She saw in his face the moment he made his decision.

"I don't mope." Jason said

"Yeah, and you don't sit out the chance to make a cool 2 mill either." Luke said "So, you in?"

Jason nodded, once.

"Everyone else ready to do this thing?" Robert asked

Everyone nodded.

"Then lets rob a mob boss." Robert said, smiling.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

ACROSS TOWN, Lois knocked once on the door to the hotel room. The man opened it, his face as handsome now as all the years ago when she first fell in love with him.

They were doomed from the start though. Still were.

She married someone else, he slept his way through all the major metropolitan cities of the world. And still the connection between them lingered on.

He yanked her inside, slammed the door, and pushed her against it. His lips were on her mouth, engaging her in a sensual kiss as his hands unbutton her shirt.

Lois moaned, and as her skirt fell to the floor thought "Sonny would kill us both... if he only knew. 


	5. Triangles

Chapter Five- Triangles

**When the meeting ended**, Carly headed straight for the bar and ordered a drink from Claude.

Robert and Luke stayed in the back room.

Zander, Lucky and Spinelli walked toward the door of the club.

Spinelli said to Zander, "Can you give me a ride?"

"What?" Zander asked " You lost the score from our last job and the Lamborghini?"

Spinelli shrugged, "The Jackal has fallen upon some hard times, man."

They walked out and Jason sat down next to his ex.

Carly downed her vodka on the rocks and ordered another.

"You still drink like a fish," Jason said

"Six months don't change anybody all that much, Jase. You still worry about stuff that is none of your business."

"Only when it comes to you," Jason said. "But you've always been my business."

She bit her the inside of her lip, a small tell. The only one she had.

Jason knew she wasn't as unaffected by him as she wanted to be.

A smile curved his lips, but he turned away before she saw it. He leaned his back on the bar and looked at the pool table.

Thought about her naked on that pool table a couple of years before, under him and happy.

"Going to be staying at the cottage again?" he asked

"Another thing that is not your business." she said "Why don't you stick with what you do best?"

She stood up and met his eyes, challenging him and making him weak for her at the same time.

Carly added, "Carry a gun and keep quiet. Don't try the heavy lifting like figuring me out or, God forbid, love."

She started to walk away and he grabbed her wrist.

She looked back over her shoulder at him, feeling her pulse accelerate at his touch, the spot where his fingers rested against her skin burned.

"Glad you came home, Sweet Caroline," his words were soft, a caress conveying much more than friendship or even romance.

It was forgiveness. 

The only problem: Carly was not sorry, she was still pissed as hell.

It ticked her off that Jason thought he could tell her who to sleep with when he was getting some action on the side himself.

Still his words made her ache, wanting him right here and right now. The past be damned.

It took all she had to turn and walk out of Luke's club without inviting Jason back to her place.

For the rest of the day she wondered if he might show up, late that night, slide into her bed, and without a word bring her back to life.

**LUCKY walked into his loft**. His eyes immediately went to his fiancee, who sat on the bed, reading a book, with a comforter over her legs. His eyes moved over the pink bra that she wore.

She raised an eyebrow, and in a _I know what you were up to _voice, said "You were seeing your father."

He peeled off his t-shirt.

Lucky's expression was one of pure need. He gently tugged down the cover, revealing the pink panties she wore.

"Tell me the truth, Lucks, your back in. Right?"

He crawled onto the bed, taking her book and tossing it onto the floor.

She smiled, not able to resist him.

"Emily, you don't really want me to answer that, do you?" He whispered, his tone all sex, his lips searing kisses along her collarbone.

She sighed and said, in a resigned and frustrated tone, "You're back in."

She moved her mouth to his, not caring that he couldn't break free of the life.

Emily hadn't been able to break free of loving him since she was in middle school. Some things were just in your DNA.

**LUKE dealt **Robert two cards.

"Seven showing." Luke said. In front of Luke was his two cards, the upturned one was a nine.

"Hit me." Robert said

"You're gonna bust."

Robert tapped the table. Luke threw a card down. An eight.

"15 showing," Luke said

Robert tossed over his face down card, a queen of hearts.

Robert had 25 total.

"Told you," Luke said

"I had seventeen. You _have to _hit on seventeen." Robert said, repeating words he had told Luke a hundred times before.

"You _never _hit on seventeen."

"I do." Robert said

"That is why you always lose your ass in blackjack." Luke tossed down the cards.

He picked up his drink and took a sip. "You know, don't you, that there is more behind this job than a pissing contest over some broad from Brooklyn."

"I know," Robert agreed.

Luke said, "So what do you think is the real reason Ned is so worked up over The Cheating Whore?"

"The painting is called _The Ever Faithful_."

"I know," Luke said with a smile.

Robert chuckled. "Don't worry, mate. I plan to find out exactly what makes that piece of paint splotches so damn sought after. And I will do it before we ever go in to Greystone."

"Well, Nedly sure as hell isn't going to tell you just because you bat your blue eyes at him."

"They worked on you."

Luke shook his head. "You' re going to work the top of the triangle, aren't you?" Meaning Lois.

"You think my beautiful blue ones will work on her?" Robert blinked rapidly.

Luke fixed him with a narrowed eyed look and joked, "Who told you they were beautiful?"


	6. Gone Too Fast

**Chapter Six- Gone too Fast**

Months before, Gia took Zander back with a few conditions: no more cons, no more schemes, no more fake identities, no more out of town jobs she couldn't go along on, no more lies, and absolutely no more dealing with any of the Scorpio Eight.

Zander had loved Gia for years, and been without her for too long. So when the crew split up he went back home, to the brownstone they had shared in better times, and agreed to her terms.

Gia didn't think a career change to something that involved repeated blows to the head, like boxing, was such a smart idea. But she backed him up because, _Hey_, she thought, _it's not being a thief_.

And Gia Campbell could deal with anything but having Zander on the wrong side of the law.

That was fine when they were both kids, chasing danger like a wildfire follows the wind, both loving dancing on the edge, when they were still young and dumb.

Now she was a business woman, and there was no way she could run a fortune 500 cosmetic dynasty by day and date a criminal by night.

_Thank God, Zander gave that all up for me_, Gia thought.

She could bring him to Christmas dinner this year and for the first time not lie when she said he was reformed.

The image made her smile. But when Zander walked in the door, with Spinelli on his heels, her expression turned to a frown.

"G!" Damien Spinelli cried, hugging her. "You look righteous as always, babe."

Her eyes went to her boyfriend. She nodded at Spinelli. "Where'd you find him? The lost and found? Or did you just bail him out?"

"Harsh," Spinelli said. "You know that was a one time thing when I needed that favor with you talking to your brother, the cop, for me."

Zander walked over and kissed Gia's cheek, trying to soften her up. "You smell great. New perfume you are coming out with at Deception?"

"Zander." Her tone was no nonsense.

"He needs a place to stay," Zander admitted

Gia slid her eyes back to Spinelli, not amused in the least.

Spinelli gave her a flirty wave, wiggling all his fingers and smiling. "It will be like camp."

She didn't smile.

"What is the job?" Gia asked

"There's no job," Spinelli and Zander said in unison.

Gia glared at her boyfriend. Then turned, grabbed her purse, and walked out of the house.

The door slammed. Zander and Spinelli stared at it.

"I think she bought it," Spinelli said.

**SONNY hated losing**. And in his business life, he never did. Bodies fell into the Port Charles River on a regular basis because of his orders.

But when it came to love, that four letter word he despised, Sonny had lost big time, over and over.

Only once was it not his fault, when Lily died. Beyond that he was the one who screwed up, choosing the wrong type of woman, the polar opposite of Lily. The bitch, the loud mouth, the ruthless conniver. And then trying to make them a housewife.

Faith had taken half his assets in the divorce, and worse, some of his territory. She was a ball buster in the first degree and Sonny was still trying to piece his life together after kicking her out two years ago.

Then he tried to tame Blair Cramer. She worked him over good, dangling her adorable kids and the idea of a family life in front of him while lining her pockets with his cash. Her psychotic ex- husband came and kidnapped her one night. Sonny didn't bother sending anyone after them. _Let Todd have her_, he had thought at the time, glad she was gone.

Carly was a one night stand that started drunk and ended nasty, with him staring down the barrel of a loaded 45.

Morgan had come close to killing him that night, and Carly hadn't even tried to stop him. If not for Milo busting in... Sonny could have become a body in the river himself that night.

Sonny wondered if Carly had been scared of Jason and that is why she sided with him. Or was she just a cold hearted bitch?

Of course, Lois was different. He knew her since grade school. Her family was his family, her blood his blood, in all the ways that meant anything. Her daughter was his god daughter, soon to be step daughter.

Yeah, life was finally looking up, Sonny believed.

He went from his bedroom to the walk in closet, looking for a suit to wear to dinner tonight at the Metro Court. He pictured the look on Lois' face when he asked, "Will you become my wife?"

Soon he would ask her and then his future would be secured.

Sonny smiled. His eyes moved from his suits to the shelves that held his shirts, then to the place on the third shelve where if you pressed in it caused the secret door to open to the safe room.

Only he knew it was there. Only he knew the precious piece of art that hung on the wall inside, and what secrets, if you looked at it just right, it revealed.

At least that is what Sonny thought.

**CARLY loved her new driver**. Well, not _loved_ in the way she had loved Jason, before he let her down for the last and final time.

But she did think this guy was cool as hell.

The driver thought he worked for a rich widow, the same story she told everyone when she came up from Florida all those years ago. She had a bulging back account from running cons up and down the east coast, all she needed back then was a place to call home, and a spot in the family that gave her up at birth. She got both. And a surprise when she learned she came by her hustling skills from the Spencer side of her genes.

Carly hired this driver for two reasons. One, she never drove anywhere -not even in an emergency, not ever -because she froze behind the wheel and remembered Charlotte, who died in a car accident over fifteen years ago.

Two, Max Giambetti used to work for Sonny Corinthos. So though Max thought they were just shooting the bull, he was actually giving her the inside look into the mob boss' mind she needed.

"He make you drive Lois around?" Carly asked.

Max glanced in the rearview mirror and made eye contact with her. "Sometimes. And her kid, too. You ever try concentrating on the road with three giggling teenage girls in the back seat? I'm glad to be done with that."

"Sonny just let you quit? That allowed?"

For the first time, Max's face went dark. "After my brother was killed in a gun battle... he threw himself in front of Sonny... well, it was either Sonny let me out or I took him out. I got Milo into that life and unfortunately Milo got me out of it."

His brother's death was still so fresh, just a month before, that Max could barely keep the tears from falling from his eyes now.

Carly said, softly, "Sorry to hear you lost your brother that way."

"He was a good man," Max said.

Carly added, "I hate violence." In truth, she didn't. But the truth never worked well in a con.

And for Carly nearly everything she had ever done was part of a long con.

"A woman like you is too classy to even hear about the criminal underbelly of this world. Lets talk about something else, Miss Spencer."

"Sure." Carly would let it drop for now but, whether Max knew it or not, they would be doing plenty of chatting about Sonny in the future. "Hey, turn that up, will you?"

Max twisted the dial on the radio. "You a fan of this group?"

Carly smiled, thinking of the time Jason played this tune at full blast as they sped away from cops in Argentina, "Just this song."

_She's a lover, baby, and a fighter  
Should of seen it coming when it got a little brighter_

_  
With a name like Dani California,  
the day was gonna come when I was gonna mourn ya_

A little loaded, she was stealing another breath

_  
I love my baby to death_

_(Red Hot Chili Peppers)  
_

**ACROSS TOWN**, in his room above Jake's, Jason Morgan was listening to the same song on the radio and remembering Argentina. The heat, the dusty road, the cops speeding after them. And her, laughing through it all.

Then once they lost the cops they ended up breaking into a deserted cottage near the beach.

Riding high on adrenaline, their clothes flew off as soon as they were inside. Their mouths found each other and without a word they were dancing on the edge of love for the millionth time.

He regretted not every saying the words to her back then. Would they be in a different place if he had managed to say, "I love you," or even "You know I love you, right?"

They acted like it was all a game- the stealing and loving. Just good times in the life of two no good grifters.

But, for him, it was more. And even now when she said she hated him, Jason had to believe it was more for Carly too.

He grabbed his leather jacket and decided to see if Carly felt like some company tonight.

_NOTE- _Michael and Morgan do not exist in this.


	7. To Love a Thief

**CHAPTER SEVEN - To Love a Thief**

_NOTE-Lulu and Spinelli are both twenty five in this story._

"Jack."

Standing behind him on the docks, late at night, Lulu whispered his nickname, a shortened version of The Jackal.

His shoulders stiffened but when he turned around he gave her a easy smile, one she knew he had worked hard to get to look relaxed and unaffected by her. When they first broke up he hadn't been able to pull off that smile nearly as well.

"Hey, Spence."

That was as close to a nickname as he would call her now. Gone was the silliness that made her crack up when they were younger. Spinelli was still that way with others, just not with Lulu, never with her.

She took in that his hair was shorter now, and the perpetual stubble he sported shaved from his face. To her, he still looked just as adorably disheveled though.

"When did you get back?" Lulu asked

"Day ago."

She nodded. He had been gone six months and eight days. Though it was two years past when he broke up with her, Lulu still kept her ear open for what was going on with her old friend.

She'd never forgive him for choosing Luke over her. At least, that is what she told herself. But there were times she wondered if she was just waiting for him to change his mind and want her again.

Spinelli said, his voice low, "You're looking good."

Lulu smiled, her blues eyes sparkling, "It's what I do best, right?"

"Second best," the words slipped from his lips before he could stop them, evoking erotic images in both of their minds.

Thoughts of them in happier times, in a loft in New York where she used to live and he used to visit her, raced through Lulu's thoughts.

They were only together for three months. But they had been great months. Months to remember.

Anger quickly replaced the heat that started to rise in her, like it always did when she thought of what he had walked away from. She crossed her arms over her chest.

Coldly, she asked "Got a job?"

Spinelli said, "Yeah, temping. I start at ELQ on Monday."

Her eyes cut into him, "Nice cover. Gonna fetch coffee by day and rob the safe by night?"

"Would I do that?" He smiled.

She tried to fight back a grin, but failed. She took a breath and studied him

_Damn thief, _Lulu thought bitterly

She would love to stick her hand out and say, _My heart. I would like it back, Spinelli. Now._

If only it worked that way.

"So my father lied about getting out?" she asked

"Six months ago? You heard that rumor, huh? From Lucky?" Spinelli asked

That was an old trick of his, asking questions and never answering any. He had said to her once, _You love me, huh?_

Had he ever loved her back ? Who knew. Who could read a con man and know if he was telling the truth. Lulu hadn't been sure and still wasn't.

Spinelli asked, " Or are we making the gossip pages at The Herald?"

The Port Charles Herald is where Lulu worked for the last year. After college she became an intern at Rolling Stone magazine.

Later, when she moved back home, she took a job with the local paper. Just a month before she had gotten her own column, in it she reviewed bands and albums.

"No." Lulu said "I doubt most people in this town have a clue about Scorpio's Eight."

Spinelli titled his head at her and whispered, his voice half joking, "Rule number 10."

"I don't give a damn about Rule number 10." Lulu hissed back at him.

Rule 10- Never say the name of the crew aloud in public.

Luke had started calling them Scorpio's Eight because Robert was the one who organized things, picked the players and planned the heists.

By day, they all worked nine to five jobs. Robert and Luke ran the bar. Zander used to drive a forklift in a warehouse on the docks, before he started boxing. Carly worked the angle of being a rich widow. Jason told people he was a writer for Solider of Fortune magazine, under a pen name so no one could disprove his lie. Lucky played the starving artist who mooched off his heiress girlfriend. And Mac ran an internet business with Anna as his partner- they sold personal protection devices like stun guns, alarms, and pepper spray.

"There's no job," he lied to her.

"Rule number nine?" she asked

He didn't answer and she knew she was right. Rule number nine- Never admit to a heist.

"Well, good luck with that, Damien." There was ice in her voice. She only called her his given name when she was pissed.

The last words she said to him on the day they broke up were a string of curse words and then _You'll regret this, Damien._

And he did.

Lulu gave him one last disapproving look, in it Spinelli could see a million broken dreams that she would never admit to -ones he was responsible for putting there- and then she turned to walk away.

Over her shoulder, she tossed back at him "Don't let my father get you killed...Jack."

**CARLY's eyes opened **and adjusted to the darkness in her bedroom. Even though she had been asleep, she knew the moment Jason stepped into the room.

She asked him, "Yeah?"

There was no surprise in her voice. Over the years he came to her in the middle of the night too many times to count. But then something always went sideways between them during the day.

The last time it had been her seeing him going upstairs at Jake's with Brenda, and then him finding her, later that same night, with Corinthos.

Jason asked her now, softly, "You start the con yet?'

Meaning had she reconnected with Sonny.

"You don't run my part of this." She told him "I got it handled."

He walked closer and she sat up in bed. The moon cast a shaft of light over the middle of the room.

She swallowed when she saw the look in his eye.

Carly titled her head, "Not a good idea."

His leather jacket came off, tossed onto the floor.

"Probably not," he agreed, dropping his shirt onto the ground.

He sat on the bed, facing away from her and yanked off his shoes.

Carly's voice was cool, not showing any of the fire that raced through her veins for him, when she asked "You don't think it's gone too far this time?"

He stalled.

Her eyes closed and she heard him moving. When she opened her eyes he was standing there, minus his pants.

Jason's eyes met hers. They weren't great at talking to each other, things often came out wrong. But they were good at this.

And he thought, maybe, Carly might understand that him being here meant something. Like he missed her, like he was sorry, like things happened and he didn't want to let those things kill them.

She needed to hear words. He didn't have any.

Carly reached out a hand, he took it and smiled. They, at least, still had the night.

**The next afternoon, Robert **walked into the apartment building where his daughter, her husband, and child lived. He saw Anna on the elevator, she held the door.

His ex- wife's eyes were questioning, waiting to see how Robert would play this.

As he stepped onto the car he said, "The thief staying home?"

Anna replied, "No, you're here."

The doors closed. He looked at her, soaking in her image to savor later.

"He couldn't face me, huh?" Robert asked, feeling smug.

"Mac is upstairs already," Anna said.

Robert frowned and looked away. In his arms he held a wrapped present, for his granddaughter's first birthday. Anna held one of her own.

The rest of the short ride was sent in uncomfortable silence. Anna tried to push down the words that longed to bubble up, and with any other man she could have.

"Robert," she said as the doors opened "if you were going to give it all up anyway... the business... why did you wait till I was gone...why?"

Even as she asked, Anna knew the answer, because she knew this man like she knew herself.

He couldn't give it up, and six months ago he was only lying to himself when he tried.

The life of a thief would be his until the day he died, probably in the middle of a heist gone bad.

Anna might go the same way, she hadn't decided yet, but for Robin she would try to walk a finer line, to at least pretend she could only dabble in those kinds of thrills.

Robert held the door, and motioned for her to exit the elevator.

She stepped into the hall. He passed her his gift.

"You aren't coming?" Her words were sharp, disappointed.

"Tell Kaitlyn Happy Birthday from me," he said

Their eyes met. Then he removed his hand from the door and it started to slide shut.

Anna threw one soft word at him, "Chicken."

His hand shot out and stopped the doors.

Robert said, "Fine, have it your way. The whole Scorpio clan in the same place again, should be fun." He walked past her, grabbing back his gift and added, "I just hope I can keep my lunch down."

**A FEW HOURS LATER**

**Mac had never **felt more uncomfortable in his life. Not when he set off a bomb that left innocent people dead, though usually none of them were innocent and it hadn't been people he was blowing up in years.

Still the bombs and the cons were easy.

Being stuck in a room with this family he loved, who for the most part either hated or misunderstood him, was hell.

Robert was throwing cheap shots at him left and right. Felicia had brought the girls to the party but also brought her new man, Noah Drake.

Mac had plotted ten different ways to kill the good doctor within the first half an hour.

Robin tried to manage the tension but it left her worn out, the baby cranky and Patrick pissed.

Good times.

Mac kissed his niece on the cheek and said, "I got to take off."

Robin nodded. "You should come and have lunch with us next week. Kat misses you since you started playing hermit at the Lake House."

Mac promised to call, but doubted he would. Robin might not blame him for breaking up her parents marriage but she still _did think _he was sleeping with Anna, and that made everything strained.

He took one last look at Felicia, Georgie and Maxie and, after giving his girls a quick wave, slipped out the door.

There was work to do on the job Anna found them.

Mac punched numbers into his cell phone as he rode the elevator to the street, "Stan, you got the blueprints? Yeah, I got the cash... Yeah, what we agreed on... Don't back out on me now. That would make me very unhappy, Stan... This will not come back on you. Corinthos isn't clever enough to decipher the ingredients on a box of cereal let alone computer code to track the electronic transfer. That's what he has _you_ for ... All right, meet me on the docks."


	8. Twisted Up in Love

**Chapter Eight Twisted Up in Love**

**LOIS sat across **from Sonny at the candlelit table.

He was amazed that this night was here, after meeting nearly thirty five years ago and being close every day since, they were now in love.

He had almost given up on getting the life he always dreamed about: the stable home so unlike the one he was raised in, the kids around the dinner table, the grandchildren to spoil one day.

Then Lois moved back to Port Charles and changed his life.

He glanced over her shoulder now, as they sat on the patio, and looked into his house. He could imagine five years from now a three year old little girl and a two year old little boy toddling around the living room crying _Mommy, Daddy_.

Sonny reached for Lois hand and said, "I don't want this to end."

"Tonight?" she asked, giving him a flirty look "I can stay up as long as you can."

He grinned, "I like the sound of that but I meant us. I want us to be like this forever. I want you to become my wife."

She batted her eyelashes at him, hoping she was pulling off demure- it wasn't her natural style. "But we've only been together a few months..."

"I've known you most of my life, Lois. And I know my heart. I love the life we have here together."

He pulled a ring box out of his pocket and opened it up.

Her eyes lit up at the sight of the stunning diamond ring.

"Say yes," Sonny whispered.

"Yes, oh yes, Sonny, yes..." she said in a sensual voice.

He stood up and said, "Get over here."

She was out of her seat and in his arms in a minute, the smile on her face was genuine now. First diamonds and then later, piles upon piles of glorious cash.

**NED was in bed with **a woman very different than his ex-wife, Lois.

This one didn't ever say _I love you _or _Change for me _or _We can have it all. _

This woman didn't give a damn about any of that.

Her blond hair whipped back and forth, and she ordered him to please her in the way she wanted. Ned gladly complied.

To tell Faith no might result in more than a lover's quarrel, he could end up with a couple of bullets in his brain.

Faith tumbled to the bed next to him and said, "You are so much better _at that _than my ex husband."

"Sonny a little selfish in bed?" Ned asked

Faith gave him a withering look, "Sonny is a little selfish in everything. When you are with that bastard it is the Sonny show all day and night. But one day, he will get his. And I will be laughing my ass off when he does."

"You already took him for half of everything." Ned said, wanting to get her talking about the money. Each time he learned a little more.

Faith ran her nails down his chest, leaving red marks.

She purred, "Half is not enough. I want it _all. _And believe me soon I will get it_."_

Ned waited for her to say more, to reveal the plan she alluded to so often, so he could make sure Robert's crew got to the painting before her. But Faith was already moving from the bed and into the shower. She had been satisfied and had no further use for him tonight.

**LUCKY threw the photos **on the table in the back room at Luke's Club.

His father looked down at them and said, "Uh-uh-oh, such a bad girl she is."

Lois and Jax were pressed against a wall in an alley, her skirt hiked up. "It took forever for me to get this. She was pretty careful until this night."

"I guess Jax has got it like that."

"So Ned says he wants her back, Sonny thinks he has her, and Jax is her side piece. Who do you think has her loyalty?" Lucky asked

"Herself."

"Cynical."

Luke mocked, "Oh, I suppose, since Emily talked you into finally making an honest woman out of her you now believe love conquers all, Romeo?"

Lucky laughed. "Money conquers all."

Luke smiled.

Lucky stabbed at the picture, touching the spot where Jax's mouth rested on Lois throat, "She knows why that painting is worth so much to both her ex and her current. So how do we get her to talk?"

"Boss says he'll handle it," Luke said referring to Robert. "He seems to think he has a certain charm when it comes to the female persuasion."

Lucky shook his head, "He better hope Anna don't hear about that."

**JASON left the other **night without saying a word to Carly about what broke them up. She expected him to come back to the cottage the next night but he didn't.

Being Carly, and not able to let it go, she finally made her way to Jake's. Spotting Jason at the pool table, she strolled past and ordered a drink from Coleman.

She sipped her martini and waited for The Hitter to make the next move. Soon his lips were next to her eyes, murmuring, "Want more?"

He moved around her and sat down on a stool. Their eyes met.

"I want answers," Carly told him.

His smile slid off his face. "You didn't six months ago. Just left town and me like it was the end of a job."

She gave him a hard look and said, "Maybe if there was a ring on my finger I would have had a reason to stay."

"Now we are going there, huh?" He raised an eyebrow, not upset but surprised.

After years of on and off again sex with no spoken commitments they break up and then start talking marriage. Everything was backwards for them, messy and painful, but that was nothing new.

"We are going there, Jase."

"Upstairs?"

Carly chuckled. "You wish."

He leaned close to her, "Come on... we do better alone than with a crowd."

Carly felt like he was trying to weasel out of telling her the truth- he gave into lust and got it on with a little brunette waitress at this very bar. That damn Brenda. If Carly could put a stake through her heart she would in an instant, but that would only bring attention from the cops and as con artists that was the last thing anyone in Scorpio Eight sought out.

Jason placed a hand on her leg, gave her a hungry look, and Carly felt her body reacting to him. She pushed away her hand and spat out, "Tell me why you did it!"

Jason leaned back and studied her face. She did her best to wipe the hurt off, but her eyes were filled with it still.

"You are the one who constantly insisted we had no commitments between us," Jason told her

She glared at him, hurting him with one look more than any bullet ever had, "You know I didn't mean that."

Till this very moment, he had only hoped that was true. When they weren't officially together both Jason and Carly slept with whoever they wanted over the years. But at the times when they were trying to make it work, neither cheated. Plenty went unsaid between them but they both knew when they were on and when they were off.

The night she was talking about- the night he nearly killed Corinthos- Jason and Carly were as close to being alter bound as they has ever been, and that was saying something for these two.

"How about," Jason said the words slowly "you don't tell me about him and I won't tell you about her."

Carly stood up. "Just forget it then. You know what? I am so over this, Jason. So over it."

She met his eyes and added, "And you."

Then she was out the door. Jason closed his eyes and let out a breath. _Why can't I ever just get it right with that woman, _he thought_, just once if I could say the right thing..._


	9. Hot for the Dough

**Chapter Nine - Hot for the Dough**

**ZANDER **staked out the park all morning. Gia hadn't been home since Spinelli moved in, and she was refusing to take his calls. Now Zander watched as the photo shoot for Deceptions latest perfume ad was shot, with Emily as the model who posed with sex in her eyes as she leaned against the gazebo.

He hoped Gia would show up and check up the progress, if none of her employees tipped her off that her good for nothing boyfriend was there waiting for her.

"Take five, Emily!" called out the photographer "We are losing the light, people. Come on let's get this set up right."

As the crew moved into place to shift props, Emily walked over to Zander.

"You pissed her off good this time, Kid."

"She's staying with you, huh?" Zander asked

"Gia went to Paris for Fashion Week."

Zander saw the lie in her eyes. "She's staying with you. Leave the conning to professionals."

Emily chuckled. "You boys promised this was behind us. I could kill Lucky for going back..." her words held no anger though.

Emily knew Lucky needed the adrenaline rush of stealing like he needed air, food and her. And like she needed him.

Zander lied, "No one went back."

She gave him a look. "That story stopped sounding believable after the first hundred times it was a lie."

**SONNY looked at **his watch. Lois was late, and she knew how much he hated that.

He ordered another drink at the Metro Court bar.

As it was set in front of him, the bartender let out a low whistle. Sonny followed his gaze to a stunning blonde who was walking in from the patio.

His heart sped up, his hand slid to his gun, making sure it was there in case Jason was with Carly.

Sonny made eye contact with his guard, Johnny, who stood ten feet away.

Soon Carly was across the room, her eyes on him, her mouth turned up into a smile.

"Long time, Son." she said, his words a caress.

Then her eyes moved from his and went to the bartender, "Tequila. Hold the rocks."

Sonny said, "Now, that is what got you in trouble the last time we met."

Carly made her voice sensual as she asked, "You call that trouble? I've been replaying that night of trouble every day since."

And she had, but not for the reason she led Sonny to believe.

"I'm engaged now." he said

Carly met his eyes, gave him a sex filled look, and said "Pity."

Sonny smiled, "Anyway, I don't tussle with boys over any lady. Haven't since grade school."

Carly had to use all her might not to cold cock him over referring to Jason as a boy.

She threw back her drink. Then set in down and ordered another.

"Something wrong?" he asked her

She let her posture soften, as if he had found her out.

"I'll be fine. Thank you for caring though. It means a lot, Sonny."

"Tell me."

Carly gave him an unsure look. Then slowly she made her features change, showing that she had decided to trust him.

"I'm in trouble. My late husband," the one that doesn't exist "got in deep to loan sharks behind my back. They just caught up to me and want me to pay up, with vig."

She gave him a innocent look and questioned " Do you know what that is?"

Sonny chuckled, "I'm familiar with the term."

"Well, the debt is eight years old. I swear they waited this long just so I would owe so much I could never pay it back. They gave me ten days but I don't have it. The money my husband left me is basically gone now. And if I can't find a way to pay up..." Her eyes were big pools of fear. Then she looked away. "Forget I said anything, it's not your problem."

"Do you need guards? I could arrange something."

Her head whipped back, "You'd do that for me?"

He nodded, as if to say no big deal.

She touched his arm. "You're a good man, Sonny."

He really liked the sound of those words. No one had said that to him in years, not since Lily.

Maybe Carly _had been _scared of Jason that night they had a one night stand, and that is why she pulled that gun on Sonny when he was in a stand off with Jason.

Milo came in before Sonny could turn around and get a good look at Carly's expression. Maybe pressing that gun to his head, moments after they had been in bed together, was the last thing she wanted to do.

Yeah, it was probably _all_ Morgan's fault.

Because Sonny could see now that Carly was just a poor helpless widow without a man to count on to protect her.

Morgan wouldn't have the skills, Sonny believed, to handle getting Carly out of this jam with loan sharks.

He told her, "I'll make this right for you. Don't worry."

Carly gave him a genuine smile and settled into her role as needy female in search of a protector.

Sweet Caroline loved the slow rush of a Long Con.

**GIA spotted **him as soon as she stepped out of the limo.

Zander jogged over, with a smile on his face, and she knew he was going to try and work her. Schmooze her and make this all fine again.

And if there was one thing Gia could not resist, it was him wearing that _Baby please _look.

"Baby..." Zander started

"Please!" Gia threw up a hand "Don't."

"You need to come home. Our bed is...awful lonely when you aren't there."

"Spoon with Spinelli."

Zander touched her arm, and leaned close. He whispered, "This is the last job. The last, baby. I love you and I want us more than that life."

"You say that every time." she started to get teary. Gia wanted a husband, a baby, a safe future. Not a life spent loving a man who loved breaking the law.

Unfortunately she had tried to stop craving Zander too many times in the past and it never took. "You con me, Zander. Can't you see that? You are working me!"

"Never."

She met his eyes, knowing he was lying, and threw out the only ammo she had. "I'm pregnant."

His hands were in her hair in a second, his lips on hers, not caring who was standing only a hundred yards away. "Oh my god, baby, that's amazing."

"I won't let you break this child's heart like you have mine. Get out of the life..."

"I will."

She shook her head, saying _yeah right_.

He insisted, "I will. Just come home..."

She nodded, yes. Because God help her, she loved this man with all she was and always would.

But Gia would not always stay if he kept conning, and Zander knew that. Just like he knew he couldn't stop.

**At the Metro Court**, Lois was in bed with her lover.

"I have to go," She moaned as he kissed her thigh "Sonny is waiting."

His mouth was making her forget her own name. "Does Sonny do this?"

Lois closed her eyes. She didn't want to think of that mobster, but so much money was on the line that her mind kept going back to the plan.

Finally, with dollar signs dancing in her hand, Lois pushed Jax away.

"You are such a bad boy. This is how you lost your fortune. Spending too much time in bed and not enough conning people out of their money." She told him as she crawled off the bed.

Jax sat up and smiled. "There is always another fortune waiting around the corner."

Lois grabbed her clothes and headed for the bathroom. She called over her shoulder, "Or waiting behind a painting."

"Exactly," said Jax with a grin.

_God, it will feel great to take Corinthos for every penny he has to his name_, Jax said silently.

He was getting hot just thinking about it.

**Coming up- Carly calls in two brothers to help her work her con.**


	10. The Brothers from Boston

**Chapter Ten - The Brothers from Boston**

**The Hummer Escalade** rolled off the interstate at the exit marked Port Charles.

Jagger Cates was at the wheel, the same as he had been since they pulled away from their condo in Boston, because he never let his younger brother drive his ride.

The CD player blasted the Chamillionaire song, " _They see me rolling,  
They hating, patrolling, and trying to catch me riding dirty._

_Trying to catch me riding dirty,_

_trying to catch me riding dirty,_

_trying to catch me riding dirty,_

_trying to catch me riding dirty_..." 

Stone flipped off the radio, for the tenth time that day, putting an end to Jagger's favorite song .

"You used to love that song," Jagger told him.

"You ruined it for me by playing it every hour on the hour. Can we just go over the story again?"

Jagger told his brother, "You always want to talk the story to death."

"And you always want to wing it," Stone shot back.

He took a breath and started to repeat the information that made up their false identities for this job. "So Carly says we are loan sharks out of Miami who will break her pretty little neck if she doesn't pay up her ex-husbands bill."

"That's about it." Jagger reached for the radio again and Stone swatted his hand away.

"And her supposed husband's name was?" Stone asked.

"Billy Hyde."

"You told me Bobby Hoyt earlier!"

"No, I am pretty sure it is Billy Hyde," Jagger said yanking open the glove box. "It's all written there. Just burn that before we get out of the car."

Stone shook his head at his brother's cavalier attitude. Stone liked having every detail worked out in advance on these con jobs. It could make the difference in living or dying at the end of the day.

Jagger said, "Remember when Carly had us pretend to be Priests? That time in Colorado when she was working the Charity fundraiser scam." Jagger laughed. " That job was a trip."

"Yeah, the look on the nun's face when you hit on her was a hoot and a half." Stone said without humor

Jagger laughed harder.

**Robert learned Lois **schedule by having Lucky track her moves for the last few days. Zander took the night shift. Lois and her bodyguards remained oblivious to the fact that anyone was spying on them.

Robert was waiting in the Metro Court lobby when she came downstairs from her Friday afternoon romp with Jax.

The teenager sprung into action just as Robert had instructed him to do and grabbed Lois' purse when she walked past him. Robert was quick to toss his paper aside and give chase to Kyle Radcliff.

He jerked his shirt, bringing him to a stop, spun him around and barked, "That's no way to treat a lady."

Robert fist drove into the teen's cheek, or so it looked to anyone around, and the kid fell

to the ground.

Lois walked over and yanked her purse from the teen's grasp. "Little punk," she spat at him.

Kyle scurried to his feet and ran out the door.

When Lois turned to look at Robert she was all smiles, "Thank you. You didn't have to do that."

Robert gave her a practiced humble grin, "My pleasure. The younger generation lacks manners and if old guys like me don't school them, who will?"

"You're not an old guy."

"Oh, sure I am. My wife left me for someone younger. I know I'm over the hill now.."

Lois took the bait, feeling like she needed to boost his ego. "Not at all. Why don't I buy you a drink to pay you back for coming to my rescue?"

"I would love to spend a few more minutes in your company. I'm Robert but you can call me Scorpio."

**LUCKY was thrilled **Gia went back to Zander and he finally could be alone in his loft with his fiancee again. As soon as she walked in from work, Lucky passed her a glass of wine, and said "Chicken is almost done."

Emily took a sip and then asked. "Cooking? You're up to something, Lucks."

"What? Me? I just want to give the woman I love a nice night and you think I have ulterior motives. You are the one who christened me with Romeo. I am just trying to live up to it."

Emily rolled her eyes. "Carly started calling you that because of the Chicago job."

"Oh..." he realized she was right and said, " well, you made me love the nickname."

Lucky pulled Emily close, taking her drink and setting it on the counter. "The way you whisper it always gets me so..."

Emily slid her hand down his chest. "I know how it gets you, Romeo."

He started kissing her neck. She moaned. When he started to undo her top, Emily put her hand over his.

She said, "I want to get married."

Lucky stilled. "We are engaged..."

"I want to get married this month. I am done with waiting for our lives to start."

Lucky kissed her. " We aren't waiting. This is our lives."

He tried to kiss her again but Emily stepped away. "And that is the problem."

Within five minutes Lucky had agreed to get married as soon as could be arranged, and they tumbled into bed, hands roaming wildly while the chicken burned in the oven.

**ROBERT** gave Lois his sob story about Anna walking out on him, making her feel like he was a sweet older gentleman who she could open up to. Add that to the drug he slipped in her drink, and she was running off at the mouth within a half an hour.

She told him she was about to marry a man she didn't love, and about to screw over a man she did. But never mentioned names.

Robert said, "Maybe you should ditch the fiance for the man your heart wants. Got to follow your bliss, right? Is he someone you used to be with?"

"I shouldn't say. It's a secret."

"I'm trustworthy."

Lois leaned close to him, "Lets just say... knowing about being faithful is going to pay off for me...in a big way."

Then she laughed.

**Standing in the door way**, her bodyguard watched this whole scene. Gregg couldn't tell his boss' woman who to hang around with but if Sonny ever found out how many men were in her life... Gregg hated to think about the blood that would be shed. He only hoped none of it would be his own for keeping quiet.


	11. Wicked Huge

**Note- This chapter is for Maddie who asked for an update on this story.**

**Chapter Eleven**

Carly made fast friends with the bodyguards Sonny sent over, Johnny and Marco. With them and Max , she put on the front of being in constant fear for her life because of the loan sharks that stalked her every move now.

When they showed up at her door, Johnny immediately pulled his gun and said into his walkie talkie. "We have company."

"I suggest you step aside and let us see Carly. It would be in her best interest." Jagger said in a voice that suggested it might be fatal to argue.

"The lady is now under the protection of Michael Corinthos Jr." Johnny informed him "You deal with him from this point on."

Stone stepped closer to Johnny until the muzzle of the gun the guard held bumped against his chest. "Don't make us ask a second time to see the widow Hyde."

Max was in the kitchen with Carly when the transmission came over the walkie talkie. Her eyes filled with feigned terror. She said to Max, "I had better face them. They won't leave town without seeing me."

"You don't have to," Max said "If Sonny won't take care of these guys, I can do it for you."

Carly hid her smile as she turned and went to the door. This new employee of hers was already ready to lay down his life for her. She loved that her con was working just as she planned.

She gave him one last sad look before opening the door. "Gentleman," she sneered.

"Mrs. Hyde, a pleasure as usual," Stone said in a smarmy voice.

Jagger stepped closer to her and said, "We should take this off the front stoop, don't you think? Your neighbors must already have their concerns about you considering the guards posted at your door. No need to let them all hear the real way Billy made his money..."

Carly motioned them inside. Johnny and Max followed and lingered by the door as the others sat down.

She knew she had to make this look good, so Sonny's guards would stress to him just how desperately she was in need of his protection. The more attention he paid her, the less he could spend on protecting _The Ever Faithful_.

Every moment she was playing the scared, helpless female she was secretly flying high. To her, working a con was like the best sex she ever had. Hot, heart racing, blood pumping pure adrenaline propelled her deeper into the con. There was only one thing she loved more in life than this.

Only one thing. Loving Jason.

Carly had a feeling it was one of these addictions- the con or The Hitter- that would eventually be the death of her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

**IN THE BACK ROOM at **Luke's Club, the next day, Robert and Luke stood in front of the dry erase board while the rest of Scorpio Eight crowded into the room and found seats.

Robert had taped photos up to the wall.

He pointed at them as he began to speak "Well, boys and girls, it looks like this job just took on some angles beyond what our client filled us in on. As you can see by this," he poked his finger at a photo "Lois is hooking up with Jax behind Sonny's back. Now everyone in town knows that Ned and Jax are best friends. So either Jax is doing his buddy wrong or else..."

"Ned don't give a damn who Lois screws," Luke said.

"She all but admitted to me she's after The Ever Faithful, " Robert said " and I would bet you dollars to diamonds that she is working with both Jax and Ned.

Luke added, "Nedly probably told us this was about revenge thinking we would buy that as the reason he wants to spend all that moolah on such a cheap ass piece of so called art."

"So the painting is worth more then?" Lucky asked

Spinelli spoke up, "I've been researching it online and with my contacts overseas and street value for it won't go higher than 150K, max. But I did find out something interesting about who Corinthos was associating with about eighteen months ago. The week after his accountant, that ancient dude Bernie, turned up as a floater in the river Sonny took a meeting with Hanson Stein."

"Is that name supposed to mean something to us?" Carly asked

"Sweet C, give me a second, and all will become clear. You should know better than to rush The Jackal."

"My mistake," she said, rolling her eyes.

"That's a new one," Jason mumbled alluding to the fact she rarely admitted she had been in the wrong about anything.

Carly glared at him. He smiled. Lucky and Zander laughed.

Spinelli said, "All right, the cool thing about this Hanson dude is he is known for his custom wood working detail. He makes dressers, armoires, stuff like that. But he also is known for having a secret compartment in some of his pieces. Sonny met him in Paris. Sonny was there with this delicious bit of eye candy, Blair Cramer, and her rug rats. The meeting took place at five am in a warehouse. I figure Sonny jetted while the chick and kids were snoozing bought himself some merchandise from Hanson and got back to bed before his bed bunny was any wiser. The thing Sonny didn't count on was a surveillance camera on the bank across the street from the warehouse."

He pulled up a grainy images from the camera on his laptop. "Boo yah! Got ya!"

Spinelli continued, " Okay, check it, I knew Hanson was the guy to go to if Sonny wanted custom work done. So by figuring out the only time him and Sonny were in the same city I could figure out what cameras to hack into. I found Hanson's hotel and then his limo rental company. Used GPS records to trace the car movements, and then hacked into the nearest camera. They met, it lasted10 minutes, Sonny left carrying a brown paper wrapped package. The right shape and size for a... da.. da... da..dum... picture frame."

"Do you love the sound of your own voice or what, Jackal?" Luke complained "All we needed to know was he bought a hollowed out frame."

"What's he hiding?" Lucky asked

Everyone looked at him, with Duh expressions on their faces.

Lucky smiled, "Sorry, my brain is not clicking on all cylinders today. Emily kept me up late. Let me rephrase my question. How much cash is Sonny squirreling away, do you think?"

"This is where it gets good," Spinelli smiled "You know I always had my doubts about the intelligence of that guy... I mean he kills all these people like every day and for what? Money? Has he not heard of conning?"

Carly sighed as Spinelli rambled on.

Zander started to pace. He liked action, not all this blabbering on about what might or might not be true. If he planned the heist it would be simple:

The Hitter puts gun to Sonny boy's head. Zander asks, just once in a calm but deadly tone, for the loot. Sonny cries like a girl and gives it up.

But that would be messy and probably get them both locked up. So Zander would follow Roberts instructions to a T, ride the inevitable high that comes the moment the prize is in their hands, and use all the cash to fiancé a future with Gia and his baby.

"Lookey what I found," Spinelli said "I followed some breadcrumbs to several accounts Corinthos has off shore. He opened them a year and a half ago. The accounts he had before were slowly being siphoned by his not so loyal after all accountant."

"All right, this is starting to come into focus," Robert said. "Our local mob lord finds out Bernie is skimming and straps some cement shoes on him then tosses him into the drink. Now he doesn't want to risk that ever happening again. Faith has gotten half of his assets when she left him and humiliated him by grabbing a piece of his territory for her own. He's paranoid and feeling like he can't trust anyone but himself. So he gets the brilliant idea to stash the numbers for his accounts in the frame of The Ever Faithful-the one thing that reminds him most of Lily, who of course died before she could let him down and now will forever be his ideal portrait of love." Robert shook his head at the foolishness in that.

"But if anyone gets their hands on that painting... he loses it all." Lucky said, grinning.

"Cocky bastard must think he can stop that from being a possibility," Luke said.

Carly laughed. "This is better than I thought. Sonny will slit his wrists if he loses a huge pile cash."

Jason watched her wicked grin grow bigger, her eyes light up at the thought of a revenge so sweet, and started to smile himself. Obviously, Carly had no love loss for Sonny.

Zander stopped pacing and asked the only question that mattered to him, "How much?"

"I was wondering when someone would get around to that. I was like" he opens his mouth wide "ga ga ga...when I calculated how much is in these accounts. It will blow your minds, make you ..."

"Jackal!" Zander barked.

Robert met Spinelli's eyes "You know The Kid has no patience. Lets hear it."

Spinelli let a moment pass, to ratchet up the tension, and then announced "220 million dollars, give or take a few pennies."

Carly squealed with delight.


	12. Seeing Red

Note- The updates on this are going to be really slow. I haven't written that much more of it yet because I am still ruminating on how to fit the puzzle pieces together. Wish me luck!

And hope you like this chapter.

**Chapter Twelve- _Seeing Red _**

**Anna Devane Scorpio **studied the face of the woman who hired her, looking for signs of weakness. There were none.

Anna said, "You will have your account numbers in due time. Patience is a virtue, like faith."

The blonde titled her head and gave Anna a hard look. "What is the hold up?"

Anna answered, "I go into Greystone without the proper planning and I'll end up behind bars. And you will have tipped Corinthos off to your desire to take what is his."

Faith stood up from her seat at the table in her hotel room.

She leaned closer to Anna, "Get this straight. That man would have nothing if not for me. He killed my first husband and took over his territory. I helped Sonny get to where he is today. Without me he would still be a street punk in Bensonhurst."

They had plotted together to kill Roscoe and then use his men as an army to take on other smaller organizations. Soon Sonny ran all of upper New York from the Canadian border to the city limits of NYC.

For a few years he was the undisputed kingpin of the Northeast, and then things went south with Faith and she made sure to cripple him financially and business wise before she walked out of their marriage.

"So I don't want to take what is his," Faith finished. "I just want back what is rightfully mine, which is," she said the last word slowly "everything."

Faith cackled, her laughter getting louder with each passing second.

Anna was pretty sure this woman was criminally insane, or at the very least, incredibly delusion.

She thought about walking away from the job but there was one thing that intrigued her.

Not only had she seen Spinelli, Zander and Carly back in town, after months of being gone, but Mac also reported that when he was paying Stan off for the blueprints Stan got a phone call from Lucky. From what Mac heard, Lucky wanted a face- to- face with the security expert, and didn't want Sonny to know about it. Stan had flatly refused, and hung up, but he looked shaken.

If the crew was back and the target was Sonny more than likely, Anna figured, Scorpio's Eight were after the same painting she was hired to heist.

And that made this job irresistible.

**LUKE did his best **to convince Robert to let bygones be bygones with baby brother Scorpio, because they needed an explosive experts for a pivotal part of this plan. But Robert wasn't biting.

So Luke headed into New York City to look up his second choice.

Knocking would have been too easy so he picked the lock on her high raise apartment door, after blacking out the security camera, and bypassing the alarm.

As soon as he stepped inside, he heard water running in the bathroom.

Luke slipped off his gloves, shoved them in his coat pocket, and moved through the darkened room. His hand closed over the bathroom door and he tried the handle, found it unlocked, and then turned.

He stepped into the room, catching an eyeful of bare skin and long red hair behind the glass door. Then it was flying open and the taser gun was being fired at him, square in the chest.

Luke flew backwards and then he was falling towards the ground, thinking _Damn, she got me again_.

**CARLY loved the **fringe benefits of this job- getting to hang out with some of the coolest guys in Port Charles after her partners in Scorpio's Eight- Max, Marco and Johnny.

If all went well with the con Sonny would lose the bulk of his bank and never know who took it. So, Carly figured, she could keep her new buddies in her life without any of them every knowing she had used them.

They were sitting in her living room, the big screen TV playing Monday Night Football, and playing strip poker.

She had invited Lulu so they would have five players.

Carly shuffled the deck and started dealing.

Max was down to his underwear. Johnny had on jeans still but no shirt. Marco sat there minus his socks and pants, but had a shirt, coat, earmuffs and scarf on. Carly couldn't help but laugh every time she looked at him.

She was making sure Lulu got the best cards so she hadn't had to strip off anything yet. To make it look good, Carly lost two hands, leaving her to sit there missing her socks and jeans.

Max lost the current hand and everyone started whopping and hollering for him to "Take it off! Take it off!"

"Wait," Carly said.

Max looked at her with a Thank God expression on his face, thinking she was about to get him out of stripping down to nothing in front of this crowd.

But she said, "Let me put on some music for your show."

Everyone, but Max, laughed.

The doorbell rang.

Johnny stood up, grabbed his gun from his ankle holster and went to answer it.

The next thing they saw was Johnny falling backwards and Jason pointing a gun at his head.

Jason barked, "You better have a damn good excuse for being half dressed..."

Lulu jumped up. "No, um, this isn't a good time..." Jason looked past her without a word. "Well when you put it that way, okay. Geez, you are so rude, Morgan."

Carly's eyes locked on him, wanting to cuss him out for treating her guard that way and also wanting to lead him straight upstairs and make love to him until she had no energy left in her body.

Jason took in the scene before him, shaking his head at the weirdness he saw, and then focused on her.

"Caroline."

"Hmmm?"

Their eyes held.

Johnny used the opportunity to raise his gun. He glanced at Carly to see how she wanted this guy dealt with.

Jason pulled a ring out of his pocket and said to her "I think we have something to talk about."

**LUKE was laying **on the bathroom floor in agony for long minutes. When he could finally pull together a coherent thought he said, "Red, I didn't know they made waterproof taser guns."

"You really should keep up. Your life could depend on it one of these days, Spencer."

Skye Chandler helped him off the ground. She now had on a bathroom robe.

"So what made you darken my door?" she snarked at him "I thought we had an agreement. I get NYC and you get that podunk town up north."

"There's a job."

"I can get work on my own. More than enough, actually. So take your _lock picking sneaking into my bathroom self _and go back where you came from."

They stared at each other. He saw the past was not forgiven, far from it by the way her eyes sparked with unbridled hate at him. Or was that lust?

He tended to get the two confused with her.

"Can I, at least," Luke asked, running his hand through his hair which now stood on edge, "get a drink before you kick me onto the curb?'

Skye Chandler cocked her head at him and said, "You are a whole lot of trouble I don't need."

But she went and fixed him his favorite drink.

**CARLY kicked Jason **out.

She needed Sonny's guards to go and tell him how she shot down Morgan and still needed Sonny's help so desperately.

But later she snuck out, when they believed she was sleeping, and crept down the alley to Lulu's waiting car. 

Carly knocked once on the door above Jake's.

"Took you long enough," Jason said before he opened it.

"Took me a couple of hours to get back to you. It took you years to get that ring," Carly told him as she walked in.

She turned to meet his eyes and stared Jason down.

He was unreadable. Just still and stoic. Blue eyed and leather clad.

"Say it," she prompted

He held the ring out, toward her.

Carly shook her head slowly, side to side, and smiled, telling him that he was not getting out of this without words. The words she needed to hear to give her some measure of faith they could stop screwing around and start treating their love the way it deserved. Like it was a prize more amazing that any they could steal with a con.

Jason swallowed. "Oh, Caroline."

Tears came to her eyes, giving her away.

He crossed the room and took her face in his hands.

"Carly...Carly..."

"Yeah, Jase?"

"I want to stop dancing..."

"You don't dance."

He chuckled. "Will you let me talk, girl? Do you really want me to say all the mushy stuff? Or can we just agree that we both want this?"

"Say the mushy stuff."

He brought his hands down from her face and took her hands in his. Jason sucked in a breath, let it out, and then did it again. Stalling.

"Unless there is no mushy stuff," Carly said "There's just sex and cons and the fact I know you like no one else ever could. And that we both are in this life and will never get out... that's something...that's..." she tried to make it sound like enough and yet she knew she wanted more.

He said, "There's more to use than that and you know it."

"So...mushy stuff, Jase."

He smiled. "I want to stop dancing around how much I love you. I want to stop being with other women when I want to be here with you. I want to start being the man you never doubt is in love with you and who you know for sure is coming home to you. Because that is where I want to spend my life... that is where I want to live and where I want to die, Caroline. Home ...with you. Now, please, tell me that you will be my wife?"

"Was that so hard?"

He started to laugh softly and so did she, she held out her hand and he slid the ring on.

Then his lips were on hers, hungry and dying for this feeling to never end, for her to always be as needy for him, as crazy for him, as wild for him as she was right now.

Jason lifted her up, she wrapped her legs around his waist, and in his ear she whispered "I want to be your wife."

_Coming up- Spinelli and Lulu scenes, Carly sees Sonny again._


	13. Free Money

**Chapter Thirteen- **_Free Money_

"How in holy hell did you talk her into coming back here?" Robert asked as Luke and Skye walked into Luke's Club.

The bar was closed because it was early morning.

"Red missed me," Luke answered, grinning.

"No one misses you, Spencer, ever." she answered

Luke smiled, thinking the snark was only a cover for the fact she wanted to be in his bed. Of course, he thought that was true about most women he met.

Skye Chandler leaned over the bar to peck Robert's cheek. "Looking good, Boss."

Though she hadn't been part of the crew in years, Robert would always be Boss in her book.

"So you want in?" Robert asked

"I heard the stakes are high. Higher than we ever went back in the old days." Skye said

"Well," Robert drug out the word. "that really does depend on if we live by the Honor Among Thieves rule..."

"Which we never have," Luke said "The only thing we have loyalty to the bottom line. Nedly deserves to lose the whole shebang for lying to us."

"So you plan to con your own client?" Skye asked, looking at Robert "Luke said the crew decided to cut Ned out but I had to hear it from you with my own ears."

"Quatermaine will get exactly what he hired us to steal." Robert said "One ugly painting of a naked broad that has none of the good bits showing."

"And no account numbers, which is what he really wanted," Skye said

"Chandler, you should know by now," Robert smiled "very rarely does anyone in the world get what they really wanted."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

**With a smile**, because he loved her so damn much he couldn't not smile at the sight of her, Lucky asked "What do you think you are doing here?"

"I need to talk wedding details with you," Emily said

He whispered, "I'm working."

"You are sitting in the lobby of The Metro Court, how is that working?"

"Believe me, it is."

Just then Jax exited the elevator and walked out the front doors.

"Got to go." Lucky stood and dropped a quick as a lightening flash kiss on her cheek then headed for the elevator.

He was upstairs sliding a stolen pass key into the door of Jax's room when Emily tapped him on the shoulder.

"You know better..." he said as he went into the room. "Go home."

"You want to work then work. I have wedding plans I need finalized."

She strolled inside. Lucky followed and then closed the door. He pinned her against it and kissed her.

"You love danger more than I do, just admit it," he whispered into her ear

" I admit nothing, Luck." But her hand was moving to his zipper as she spoke.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"**You sure you **want to do this?" he asked her as they drove passed the sign that said

**Welcome to Port Charles**

"We've been in the car for ten hours and now you want to know if I'm sure?" Blair asked "A little late, Todd, don't you think?"

"Just don't want you blaming me if this blows up in your face."

"Please. He goes weak in the knees over a blonde. And I am as stunning as they come. So Sonny will gladly invite me in. And then I will tell him how _you_ kept me hostage for all these months."

"He can check that lie out easy enough."

Blair argued, "That would take time and old Sonny boy will want me gone before _Lois" _she sneered the name of her replacement _"_gets homeHe'll be happy to give me a little going away money, if only so I don't mess up his impending nuptials."

"You saw the wedding announcement and couldn't resist, could you?" Todd asked

"Hey, it's free money. Who could resist that?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**Mac just rolled **his eyes when Anna told him she suspected Robert was working the same job.

"What?" she asked "You think I got it wrong? I know that ex of mine. He's got his eye on Corinthos, same as us."

" I have no doubt he does. But, tell me, since when do we work against family?"

"Mac, for God sake's, will you at least _try_ to be as cold blooded to him as he is to you?"

"Not gonna happen, Annie."

She smiled. "Don't call me that."

"Go home to your husband, Annie."

"Not gonna happen, Bomber."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**Lulu had a hard ti**me doing the right thing. She knew it wasn't smart to ever start dating Spinelli. Because he worked with her father and no one who did that was ever going to be able to settle down.

But then, two years ago, Spinelli had showed up on her doorstep one rainy night, after a long year of no contact between them. The first words out of his mouth were, "The Jackal and The Blond One- we meet again." 

She couldn't resist bringing him inside, drying him off , stripping him of his wet clothes and then, while they tumble around in her dryer, she tumbled around her bed with the boy she fell for at eighteen.

Now, he was back. And ignoring her once more. Whenever things got intense between them, and since the first time he kissed her they had been and stayed intense, Damien had a tendency to run away.

That pissed Lulu off.

She knew she shouldn't be knocking on Zander's door at midnight. But she was anyway.

A window opened overhead. Spinelli leaned out. "Spence?"

"Jack."

"I'll be right down."

She hoped he didn't put on a shirt. He had grown so much since freshman year of college, his body filled out in all the right places, the places that made it hard for her to look at him and not think about when he was hers.

But even back in college she had been a sucker for his boyish good looks, those soulful eyes, the smile that never failed to make her feel better.

He slid outside, silent as if he was on the job.

"What are you doing here?" Spinelli asked

She didn't have a good answer for that. She wanted to get her heart back from him. But since she knew he couldn't give that to her, she grabbed him and brought her lips to his.

He didn't fight her, instead he brought his arms around her body, and urged her mouth open with his tongue.

It had been too long, she tasted too good, and he simply lacked the willpower to turn her away.


	14. Don't Come Easy

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Lulu pulled out **of the kiss she started with Spinelli and whispered, "You're such a bastard."

"Yes, I am."

No one else would have thought that of him. To the world he was just a goofy genius. To her, he was passion and fury, and the one she was pretty damn sure was her soul mate. Though, at times, she hated knowing that little fact.

As she glared at him, loving and despising him in equal parts, he asked "You hate me now, huh?"

Lulu could not stand when he asked questions instead of giving her a straight answer. It reminded her that he was a con man at heart. Suddenly all the pain took over her desire and she wanted to rip him to pieces, for that is what he had done to her heart.

She exploded, "How could you choose my dad over me? How? HOW!"

Spinelli looked down, not able to meet her eyes. And in his sheepish posture she saw the boy she met when she was eighteen. And knew that, for better or worse, he would never be the one she thought would _only_ make her laugh and feel good, never tear her very heart to shreds and walk away.

For lack of another way to make him hurt she stomped on his foot with all her might.

"Blonde One!' he protested.

The nickname made her ache even more. It was the first time he called her that since they broke up.

He rubbed his foot as he said, "Okay, okay, I know I messed up."

"You ass!" Lulu yelled at him.

He only nodded his head in response, bitterly agreeing with her assessment.

She ranted, "Was it worth it? Do you even know what you did to me, Damien? Do you know? Do you care? And for what? So you can bask in the shadow of the legendary Luke Spencer!"

"I know what I did hurt..."

She started hitting him. "Hell yeah it did!"

"Blonde One! Lulu! Come on. Stop." He grabbed her hands just as the people in the brownstone next door flipped on the porch and peered out.

"Sorry about that!" Spinelli called out to the neighbors.

Then in a softer voice told Lulu, "I am sorry, Spence. You will never know how sorry I am that I had to do that to you but...hey... we both know..."

Calmly she challenged, with him still holding her both her hands and his warmth infusing onto her skin, "What do we both know?"

"I can never be the guy you need. Not want, need. Whether I work with your Dad or not, I will never do 9-5 or straight laced. And after the way you grew up with your folks being on the road all the time, I know you want that. I know you need that."

"You don't know anything except how to break my heart."

She sniffled, though no tears fell, and jerked her hands away.

Then she stomped back to her car and drove away with squealing tires.

Spinelli slowly sunk down and sat on the steps of the porch, a moment later his head fell forward and he cursed, "Damn."

**XXXXX**

**Now that she was set to marry Jason, **cozing up to Sonny was enough to make Carly gag. But still she gave the mob boss those sickening sweet smiles, those _help me _eyes, and she worked him over.

Right now she sat in his living room while Lois was out getting her nails done.

"Those hustlers from Miami will be out of town by sundown," Sonny promised. "Count on it."

She cried, "But I them owe so much! I think I should take their deal. Go back to Florida and work it off. What they had in mind can't be that bad..."

"Never. I will not allow it." Sonny ordered. He paused, then touched her hand. "I will pay your debt."

"You are too good to me," Carly purred

He smiled. "For old time's sake."

"What about new times sake?" she asked, scooting close.

She would love to get upstairs and get a look around for where the painting could be stashed.

"You know I'm an engaged man," he answered

She gave him a sexy smile. "Not right now, you aren't. You are just the man I want to get to know better."

Sonny was eyeing her, up and down, when Johnny stepped in the room and said "You have a visitor, sir."

"Not now."

"Sir...it's her. Blair."

Sonny's head jerked up, away from Carly's cleavage. "You got to be kidding me? She had the nerve to come back here?"

"She's sort of bruised up. I didn't think I should send her away," Johnny said

_Bruises_, Carly thought _hmmmm I should have went that far_.

"I'm sorry," Sonny told her "But I should see my guest. Johnny will take you home and stay with you until this little situation is resolved."

"You are too generous, Sonny." Carly said with a forced smile.

XXXXXXXX

Carly walked into the foyer and gave Blair the once over. She had to do her best to not smirk. Carly could see a con a mile away, and this chick was working one. And a low rent half-assed one at that.

Blair wasn't as good at hiding her emotions. Her flashpoint was low and seeing Carly, a blonde in a hot little black dress in the mansion Blair used to live in, pissed her off.

With a glare, Blair bumped into Carly's shoulder and strutted past her.

"Oh, Sonny!" Carly heard her cry in a little girl's voice.

Johnny stood by the door. "Ready to head home?"

"Could I use the bathroom first?" Carly asked

"Sure, it's right upstairs. I'll show you."

"No, I've been here before," she lied and let her eyes drop slightly, as if the affair that she alluded to embarrassed her. "I'll be five minutes. Promise."

She peeked into every room until she found the master bedroom. She didn't go to the bookcase Ned told them held the secret button that led to the safe room, just confirmed it was there with a quick dart of her eyes in that direction, in case camera's were on her. Then she moved to Sonny's bathroom.

When she walked back out of the Master bathroom three guards were waiting in the hall, standing behind Johnny.

As Carly suspected they saw her enter Sonny's bedroom on their surveillance. The night of the heist something would have to be done to distract them.

"Hey, boys," she gave them a innocent smile "is there a problem?"

"Not at all," Johnny said as shot a dirty look at the other guards for suspecting Carly was up to no good. "I'll get you home now, alright?"

"Of course. What would I do without you?"

Johnny simply smiled as she walked past him and back down stairs, swinging her hips in a way that made the other three guards and Johnny forget their own names, let alone what room she had been in.

XXXXXX

Sonny wasn't buying Blair's story. After listening to her tale of how Todd stalked, kidnapped, and held her captive for months, Sonny rolled his eyes.

"You took me for $500,000 already. How much you think you're due this time?" he asked

"I never stole from you!"

"No, you worked for every penny of it." he leered at her.

Her eyes flashed with anger but her voice stayed pleading, "I have nothing now. I escaped Todd and came straight here. My Aunt has my kids but I can't take care of them myself till I get back on my feet. I bet Jack would love to see you again, his Daddy Sonny."

"You are a piece of work. Get the hell out of my house."

"Wha? I can't understand why you would treat me this way."

"Because I'm no longer a sucker. And the woman who loves me now cares about more than my bank account. Go back to Todd or don't. I don't care where you go but you can not stay here, not for one second longer. Hank!"

The guard walked into the room.

"Get her out of my sight," Sonny said.

Blair walked up to him and hissed, " You'll rue this day."

Though it didn't show in his eyes, a cold chill ran down Sonny's spine.

Blair stormed out with Hank racing behind her to make sure she left the property.

XXXXXXX

Anna walked out the back door of the lake house and found Mac sitting in his favorite chair on the deck.

"Our client is getting antsy," she said "We'll have to go in soon."

"Well there's only one place the painting can be, according to the blue prints. There's unaccounted for space right off of Sonny's bedroom. The prints read it's a walk- in closet but Stan says he's never seen one there, just a bookcase in front of where it should be."

"So make me a bomb, Bomber. Nothing flashy. We'll try to bypass his alarm first and if it doesn't work, we'll do it the old fashioned way. Then out the window before the guards know what happened."

Mac gave her a skeptical look. "It's more than a two man job."

She leaned against the deck and crossed her arms in front of her. " We are back to this?"

"Your pride is going to get us both pinched. And I am too pretty to go to prison."

"Again," she said

"Again," he agreed.

"Do you trust me?"

"With my life," Mac said

She smiled. "I figured since Robert is going after the same thing anyway, he could help us. Without him knowing, of course. We'll let him distract the guards, pop the circuit breakers, tranq the dogs- all that dirty work that you know I hate- and then you and I will cruise in a minute before Scorpio's Eight and take the prize."

"So now we have to get by a mansion full of security and the old crew too?" Mac asked, shaking his head.

"You got a problem with that? Are you scared? I never thought I would see the day..."

"That tactic only works on your husband."

"Ex-husband," she corrected.

"You think if you beat him at his own con you can finally forgive him for choosing the life over you?"

After a long measured look, she whispered "Some things are unforgivable."

But Anna knew, whether she wanted to or not, she loved Robert, and one day she would have to go back home.


	15. This is the last time

Chapter 15

Blair peeled out of Greystone with squealing tires. She drove straight to the motel where she had left Todd.

Storming in the door, she cried " I want him dead!" 

Todd smirked, "Didn't go the way you hoped?"

"He dies. You got it? And I want him to suffer!"

Todd rolled his eyes and said, "You cheat on me, the loser hurts you, and I have to kill him. This is becoming quite a pattern, don't you think?"

Blair's eyes were wild with rage. "Just get it done."

"Fine. But this is the last time."

XXXXXX

Later that afternoon, Max and Johnny walked into Greystone a few steps behind Stone and Jagger.

"Boss, here are the two gentlemen from Miami, just as you requested," said Johnny

Sonny didn't bother to stand up from behind his desk. He glared at the brothers and said, "I wouldn't call them gentlemen. Not when they shakedown widows to make their living. I don't know if there is a lower level of scum."

"Carly said you want to make good on her debt," Jagger said "So lets get to it, without the sermon on morality."

Sonny tossed the envelope of money onto the floor. "Take it and get out of my sight."

xxxxxx

Skye Chandler lived a nomadic life. She left Pine Valley and her Daddy's money behind at 21, the day she graduated college. And then never used her business degree even one day of her working life. She didn't belong in that world. She belonged here in a smoky bar, with her stand-in father figure, Robert, and his partner, Luke, who drove her crazy for the few months they dated, years before, and who drove her even crazier now.

Though she put up show for Luke when he asked her to come home and use her skills with explosive on their latest heist, Skye did miss the crew, and nights like this.

Luke's Club was closed down for the private engagement party in honor of Jason and Carly. They were making it legit-finally. Skye smiled as she watched them dancing by the juke box. If they knew anyone else was in the room, it didn't show.

"Chandler, don't you always hit on seventeen?" Robert asked

"You always do, Boss," she said with affection. "The rest of us, not so much."

"And that is why he always," Luke started his normal answer

"Loses his ass in blackjack," Spinelli grumbled out the rest of the often repeated retort. "Could someone change the script?"

"What's wrong with The Jackal?" Skye asked Robert

Robert gave her a look.

"Oh," Skye said

Luke had heard about Lulu's late night visit to see Spinelli. Gia woke up and spotted her out the window. She told Emily who told...everybody, as she was prone to do. Now he watched the younger guy moping at the bar, throwing back shots.

"Lets go down to Front Street," Luke offered to him.

Spinelli gave him a cold look. "You think a whore could replace her?"

Luke's jaw clenched. "I didn't say that. You like Front Street. You never complained before."

Spinelli stood up and said, "I walked away from her once. That is all you can ask of me. It was your one card and you played it. She came back to me on her own and like an ass I hurt her again."

He threw back one more shot. "She calls me Jack, did you know that? Not some silly The Jackal anymore. Jack."

Luke didn't say a word. He saw in Spinelli's eyes that he hated himself right now, and loved Lulu, and nothing Luke said would change that.

"I'm out of here," Spinelli said.

Carly was walking over, with her arm around Jason, she cried "No way. No one leaves till we have a toast."

Everyone gathered around.

Carly stared at Lucky.

With a blank expression he asked, "What? Oh, I am doing this. Okay."

"You are my own flesh and blood, Romeo. Do you think you could muster up a few well wishes?" Carly asked

"I could think of a few things," Luke said

"NO!" Carly cried. Then bumped Lucky with her shoulder.

"Okay, okay, okay." Lucky said. "Raise your glasses everyone. We all know that it wasn't easy for these two to admit they don't want to kill each other. But now that they have, I wish them nothing but good times and barring that...strong bullet proof vests."

Carly rolled her eyes.

Zander said, "To The Hitter and The Heartbreaker."

"The Hitter and The Heartbreaker," the whole room repeated.

The clinked glasses and then Bobbie added, "To love."

"To love," Jason agreed as he gave Carly a long look filled with heat.

XXXXXX

Anna picked the lock on the front door of Luke's club and walked inside. Several guns pointed her way.

"Hey, crew."

They lowered their weapons and broke into smiles.

Robert watched his ex as she slowly made her way over to the bar.

Skye stood and gave her a hug. "Good to see you."

"Lets dance, Luv," Luke said

"Only I call her Luv!" cried Robert

"You haven't called her Luv in a year," Luke taunted him.

Robert gave him a dirty look.

"I didn't come here to dance," Anna said. She pointed at Robert. "Back room."

He followed her without a word.

When they were alone, they regarded each other warily.

"Thought you had no use for me?" Robert asked

"This is business."

His face fell. "I don't talk business with traitors."

"Oh, now I am a traitor? I thought I was just a cheater?"

"The minute you were one, you became the other," Robert said as he walked behind the desk and sat down.

"You don't know me at all. After all these years..."

He couldn't even look at her without thinking of Mac's lips on her body. "The feeling is mutual, Luv."

She winced at the savage way he said her nickname.

Anna sat down, crossed her legs and gave him a cold look. "I need the number of that guy we used in Beirut on the 85' job."

"You and my brother getting yourself in deep overseas now? You think that is wise?"

"The name, Robert."

"Is this about the art exhibit that is going through there at the end of the month? That your latest job? I thought you were out of this life? Isn't that what made you leave me? Because Mac was willing to give up everything for you and I wasn't."

Anna was glad to see that her ploy to make him think she was working a different job than going after The Ever Faithful had worked, but was devastated to feel how palpable his anger still was for her.

She snapped. "If you don't want to give me the name I'll find it on my own. Maybe I'll borrow The Jackal's skills."

Robert jotted the name down and passed it to her.

"Don't get yourself in trouble, Luv."

"I pulled your ass out of more trouble than you can even remember," Anna said with a smile.

Robert couldn't smile back. "You should get home. Mac is probably missing you."

"Do you miss me?"

She held her breath as she waited for his answer, and prayed her eyes did not give her heart away.

_NOTE- I don't know when I can update this again. I am struggling to pull all the threads together and finish up this story.  
_


	16. The Cold Hard Truth

Chapter Sixteen

_No, No, No, No, NO_

The word ricocheted around Anna's mind as she walked into The Lake House that night.

"_You should get home. Mac is probably missing you."_

"_Do you miss me?"_

"_No."_

"Bastard!" she yelled at the top of her lungs as she flung her purse across the room.

Mac came walking into the living room. He wore low slung jeans and a white t-shirt. "You called?"

"Not you. Robert. He is a infuriating liar who thinks he can play games with all of our lives and get away with it. He says he can't get out of the life so I leave him and then what does the jackass do- GET OUT OF THE LIFE. Of course that does not last but we all knew that would happen. Then he says you and I are having an affair so that must be true, right? Right? Right? ugh! He only cares about his damn heists. That comes first, not me, never me. I will never," standing there with pure fury on her features her eyes filled with tears "ever let my heart get stomped by that man again!"

Mac walked over and took her into his arms. "Yeah you will, Annie."

"Yeah, I will," she sniffled. Then she pulled back and said "But we are getting that painting before he can. I get to beat him at something in all of this. Don't you think that is only fair, Bomber?"

"Thieves don't really get to worry about what is fair," Mac said. He pulled her close and stroked her hair for a minute. She let her body relax.

"You need to go home to him," Mac said "and stop all this insanity."

"Just because you want Felicia back doesn't mean I want Robert back."

"Except you do."

"Yeah, I do."

XXXXX

Jagger drove his hummer toward the Metro Court. Stone sat in the passenger seat. They had just left Sonny's, after getting the payment for the money Carly supposedly owed them.

Their job was over. Carly had now reestablished her relationship with Sonny and could get as close to him as she would need for the last part of the heist but Jagger didn't feel like heading back to Boston, as he was now free to do.

His blood was pumping in a way that only happened at two times- during a good con or hot sex.

His favorite song played on the radio.

(_They see me rolling  
They hating  
Patrolling and trying a catch me riding dirty_

_  
trying catch me riding dirty_

_trying catch me riding dirty_

_trying catch me riding dirty_

_trying catch me riding dirty_

_  
My music so loud  
I'm swinging  
They hoping' that they gonna catch me riding dirty  
_

_  
trying catch me riding dirty  
trying catch me riding dirty_

_trying catch me riding dirty_

_trying catch me riding dirty ) ( _Chamillionaire)

Stone said, "We'll leave in the morning."

Jagger said, "And what would be the fun in that?"

Stone groaned, "Don't try and flip the script at the last second, like you always do. We came to do a job. We did it. Lets get out while the getting is good."

"That gangster talked to us like we were dogs. You think we should take that?"

Stone held up the envelope of money. "I feel alright with it, considering."

"Well, I don't" said Jagger " I want to hang around and see him get the takedown he so rightly deserves."

Stone flipped off the radio.

"Hey!" objected his brother.

"You gonna change your mind about sticking around this town?"

"No. But you can catch the train and head home, if you want."

"Like I would leave you here in a town full of mobsters and con artists. Fine, we stay for now but no more of that damn song. I can not stand to hear it again."

Jagger smirked and since he was the older brother went to put the CD back on. Stone took it from the player, broke it in two, and tossed the pieces out the window.

Jagger started to sing "trying catch me riding dirty  
trying catch me riding dirty

trying catch me riding dirty

trying catch me riding dirty ..."

XXXXXX

Spinelli ended up at Lulu's door at midnight.

He knocked and she asked who it was. In a husky voice, he mumured, "Hey Blonde One."

When the door opened, she was wearing a short white nightie. "You want what?"

"You," he said and then his hands were on her cheeks and his mouth was on her lips and they were stumbling backwards together.

He broke contact and slammed the door close. When he went to kiss her again, she held her hand up and pressed against his chest. "No, don't! Not now."

Spinelli looked around. "Are you not here...alone?"

She glared at him. "God, you never get it, do you? I thought you understood me. There were times I thought you were the only one who understood me. I'm not with anyone else. Not dating. Not screwing. Not even thinking about it- since you left six months ago."

She walked into the room more, giving herself some space from him.

She went on to say,"I did my best to move on when you threw me away two years ago. Do you know how hard that was?"

"I didn't throw you away, Spence."

"You did, Jack."

Their eyes locked on each other. She went on, "But when you left town, just after I got back here, that was it for me. I couldn't stop thinking about how you were running AWAY from me. You got out of the life and still didn't come to me. Why? Why? How could you do that?"

He looked sheepish. "I didn't know you were waiting for me."

Lulu looked around for something to throw at him. She grabbed a picture and tossed it at his head. He ducked, it hit the wall and shattered. Spinelli looked down at it. It was them, at eighteen.

He moved towards her.

She said, her words angry and hurt and starting to be tearful, " Of course I was waiting for you...I was in love with you, you idiot."

Slowly he inched his way until he was right in front of her and then ran his hand into her hair. "I've never loved anyone but you, Spence."

Her chest started to heave with sobs that threatened to be release.

He said, "Tell me that you can forgive me for it all. I need you back...you are the only thing in this world I really need."

When his lips touched hers, slowly with more than a little fear that she would again push him away and maybe even attempt to beat the living daylights out of him, she softened and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Soon he was peeling her nightie off and lavishly her body with tender kisses. He would do whatever he could to show her how much of his heart belonged to her.

"Spence, say you love me again," he breathed out.

"I love you, Jack."

XXXXXXX

Across town, Lois was once again in bed with her lover. As soon as he rolled off her he started to talk about their favorite subject.

Jax said to her, "It's getting close. The whole thing should be going down any day now."

She asked, "And you are sure that we will get there before Faith does?"

"If not, then I suppose we can hire Scorpio's Eight to steal back what she stole."

Lois bit his neck. "Nope, won't do. She'll have the accounts drained by that time. It's first come first to get it all. And I have to be first. I've been sleeping with that Godfather wanna be. I've been pretending to love him for months. _You think _I plan on walking out of this thing empty handed? I don't think so, Jax."

She climbed on top and him. Her nails raked down his chest. "Tell me that you are going to get me what I want...tell me I get the grand prize..."

Lois was into a little pain with her pleasure and Jax knew she could use those nails to make him scream, in agony or joy, depending on her mood. To keep her happy, he said "The Ever Faithful and her hidden riches are as good as ours."

Lois leaned down and caught his lips in a intense kiss that didn't have a thing to do with love. It was all greed and lust, and the way she got off on the idea of getting away with fooling everyone.

She didn't think anyone knew about her and Jax, about the account numbers, about her not having any intention of ever becoming Mrs. Sonny Corinthos. She thought she had pulled off the ultimate con.

Lois didn't know just how wrong she was, but soon, very soon, she would be staring down the barrel of the cold hard truth.


	17. This is why I'm hot

_AN- You are awesome if you are sticking with this story. I suck for taking so long to finish it._

_Here is a new installment though-_

**Chapter 17- This is Why I'm Hot**

**It was countdown time **for the job. Mac knew it would be a matter of days now, not weeks.

This was always the time when the adrenaline started pumping through his veins, getting him hyped, ready, hot for the score.

During the long year when he was without- without his brother, his wife ( she called herself ex, but he never would), without his girls on most days, without anything to get him out of bed at all- Mac was a shell of a man.

The only thing he lived for was to keep his promise to Anna. He cooked her dinner, dried her tears- the very few that ever fell- and he waited for the day she went home where she belonged and he could start to piece back together his wreck of an existence.

But now, feeling all pumped up with desire for looting and stealing and conning and all the things that made life worthwhile, Mac did what he hadn't in 376 days.

He knocked on Felicia's door.

_If Noah answers he's dead_, Mac thought. His fist clenched and unclenched, but he wore a smile.

When the door opened, it was her. She looked him up and down, still pissed but he could see some real excitement in her gaze, and a heart that was full of pain in her eyes.

"You don't live here anymore," she said.

"Not since you threw me out on the lawn," he said

"And you never tried to come back."

"Was I supposed to?"

She shook her head at his comment, choosing to not go there. "Your daughters aren't home. They are sleeping over at Robin's tonight."

He gave her a crooked smile. "Come on, now, you know damn well I didn't come here to see them. I see them on Saturdays at Kelly's. Tell me you don't know why I am here."

He stepped inside. She only moved an inch back. He closed the door behind him.

Leaning down, close to her ear, he whispered "Tell me you don't know why I am here..."

He heard her suck in a breath through her nose, inhaling him and them, the past, the moment, what they both wanted.

His hands moved to her hips. She rocked them closer to him.

"Tell me you don't know..." he said again, as his nipped her shoulder blade.

Felicia exhaled and spat out, "Stop talking. Its been a year. No more talking."

She was the one who kissed him. He wouldn't have stayed if she hadn't.

XXXXXXXX

**Carly and Jason slipped **out the back door of Jake's and into Jagger's Hummer Escalade.

The dark tinted windows would keep the world from knowing the old friends were hanging out.

"Hey," Jason said and nodded his head at the brothers.

"Long time," Jagger said

"Couple of lifetimes at least," Jason agreed.

Carly was riding a high from the engagement party- and still kind of shocked that The Hitter came through with a ring.

But she twisted her face up at the rap music that bounced around the inside of the vehicle as they drove away.

_This is why I'm hot  
This is why I'm hot  
This is why (this is why)  
This is why I'm hot _

I'm hot cause I'm fly  
You hate cause you not  
This is why (this is why)  
This is why I'm hot  
I'm hot cause I'm fly  
You ain't cause you not  
This is why (this is why)  
This is why I'm hot

_(By Mims)_

"What in the hell is this crud?" she asked

Stone looked back and said, "His new favorite song."

Carly rolled her eyes. Then she stuck her hand forward, showing off her ring.

"Look, Jag, look."

"Who did you steal that from?" Jagger asked

She smacked him. "We're getting hitched. After this job. You have to come. It will be in Aruba, where no one knows any of us so we can actually relax a little."

Though none of them ever let down their guard too much. It was a sure way to end up dead.

"Congrats, Caroline," Stone said

Jagger met her eyes in the rearview. Once they had been more, way back in Florida. He was the reason they called her The Heartbreaker. Carly had broken Jagger, but good.

That was long before she met Jason. Ever since that her and Jagger were only the best of friends, almost family.

She smiled at him. Jagger nodded back. And in that motion she saw he was happy for her.

Jason said, "You guys headed back to Boston in the morning?"

Stone rolled his eyes and grumbled "We should be."

The older Cates brother said, "Nah, I thought we would stay for a while."

Carly shot Jason a look. Then she said "Oh, hell no, you aren't...you can't. This job goes down soon and if Sonny sees you around town after he paid you off, who knows what he might do."

"I got it under control," Jagger said " You know I like seeing the final showdown."

Jason warned him. "Don't screw this up. We clear?"

"Yeah, Hitter, we're clear."

Then Jagger started the song over and sang along. Everyone groaned but soon they were all joining in

_This is why I'm hot  
This is why I'm hot  
This is why (this is why)  
This is why I'm hot _

I'm hot cause I'm fly  
You hate cause you not  
This is why (this is why)  
This is why I'm hot  
I'm hot cause I'm fly  
You ain't cause you not  
This is why (this is why)  
This is why I'm hot ( Mims)

**Jason loved the crazy **big smile on Carly's face. There were times he went months without seeing that look and then it was back, and they were okay, and life was more than just living once more- it was love and her and a high that couldn't be gotten from anything else on the planet but grifting and loving Sweet Caroline.

XXXXXXXX

**Todd walked back into **the motel and found Blair watching the movie Fatal Attraction. It was one of her favorites.

He threw his bag on the bed. It contained his usual tools of the trade- when it came to getting rid of the men Blair deemed a nuisance. Binoculars, rope, handcuffs, a knife, a handkerchief to gag them with if they tried to scream.

"He won't be as easy as the rest," Todd said in disgust. "I just checked out where he lives. You could have told me that he had over twenty guards there at all times."

"So make them go away," she said with her eyes on a bunny that was boiling on the screen.

Todd shook his head, "You even planning to help me with this?"

She gave him a hard look. "Do it. Just get it done. Or else the kids and I are moving out when we get back home. If you would let him live after what he did to me..."

"He's dead," Todd said. But he wasn't sure how he would be able to make that happen.

XXXXXXX

Back inside of Luke's, music was blaring and the con artists were enjoying their rare night off.

Gia was dancing with Zander, the man she loved too much for her own damn good.

Emily was killing Lucky in a game of pool. He swore he let her win every time. But the truth was that Luke had turned her into a shark at thirteen and she could run a table like nobody's business.

Skye was trying to cheer up Robert. Luke was trying to figure out a way to get Skye out of her lovely green dress before the night was over.

Robert looked over the people in this room, and thought about the ones that weren't here. He thought about every con that they ever did and how he doubted they could ever stop.

What a way to spend a life. But he had loved nearly every second of it.

(_Sing with me, sing for the years  
Sing for the laughter, sing for the tears  
Sing with me, if it's just for today  
Maybe tomorrow the good lord will take you away) (Aerosmith)_

**Emily threw down **her pool stick, as the eight ball went in the side pocket, and then crawled onto the table.

"Listen up all you sinners! I just beat Romeo for the billionth time and though he had no chance of winning he bet me that if I did...we would be married next Sunday. That ceremony at St. Timothy's will be for respectable folks only.."

They all laughed.

She smiled. "So don't let me see any of your asses there. Our ceremony will be Saturday night- midnight- here."

Lucky gave her a grin. They hadn't talked about having a private ceremony first but he loved the idea.

Emily ordered " Now tell me Congratulations and some one pour me a damn drink!"

They room erupted in cheers and the champagne was soon flowing.

(_Dream on, dream on  
Dream yourself a dream come true_

_  
Dream on, dream on  
Dream until your dream come true_

_  
Dream on, dream on, dream on... _

Sing with me, sing for the years  
Sing for the laughter and sing for the tears  
Sing with me,

_if it's just for today_

_  
Maybe tomorrow the good lord will take you away_)

**For now, all **was right in their world. Even the job was falling into place. But everyone in this room had been out of the life, and little did they know, they would soon be wondering if they should have just stayed out.

Every job was a risk and no one could beat the odds forever, could they?


	18. A Real Bad Feeling

Gia walked across her bedroom, dressed in a black nightgown that skimmed the top of her thighs, with her eyes stuck on Zander.

His filled with heat, but her eyes told him to forget about it.

"What did I do now?" he joked

"Everyone is getting married...everyone but..." she smiled then patted her stomach "Little one, daddy wants you to be born in sin. Do you have a problem with that?"

He chuckled, then reached out and grabbed her hand, yanking her into bed with him. She laughed and fell onto his lap.

"G, I know you and this is not you. You want a big proposal and a wedding that rivals Princess Di's. I'm gonna give you all that...when this job is done."

"When this job is done," she mocked good naturedly "I am always waiting on some job to be done. Some day when this is all behind us...it better be coming soon, Kid."

He kissed her neck, then moved down to her breast, as he pushed her gown up.

She let out a sigh, that soon turned into a moan, and forgot all about all the ultimatums she had planned to tell him. She had said them a million times before, and she wasn't sure he got her point.

_If you don't get out, we are over..._

_If you don't get out, you'll be dead..._..

Gia had a feeling, as she grew bigger and bigger with his child everyday, that they were up against a clock...and that Zander was never going to give her the life he promised, that he simply was not capable of it.

"Oh...God...I love you, Kid."

And she did. But Gia Campbell was no one's fool, she knew all too well, love was probably not going to be enough.

XXXXX

**The Next Morning**

Felicia woke up, and found that her head was resting on the bare chest of her ex-husband. He hadn't lived with her in a year. She had spent more than fifteen years of her life, of their love, putting up with his career. It never bothered her, as long as when he was home he was really there- playing with the kids, taking her out on the town, leaving work behind.

Then he stopped doing that. The out of town jobs became ones that lasted months, not days. The last big heist was supposed to be his freedom from conning. When it ended he came home, with promises of a different sort of life, but Felicia had started hers early- with Noah Drake.

She ran her hand over Mac's chest. It wasn't that she loved the doctor more than him. But Noah was here, while Mac was who the hell knows where. Noah was stable, and attentive. Mac was into his own thing- like blowing up whatever Robert told him to- and had his secrets, his lies, his agendas. Felicia got sick of that and thought normal would be better...she was wrong...and last night proved it to her.

She kissed Mac now and he came awake. "The girls will be home soon...maybe you should leave...before they think you are back for good."

"Aren't I?"

His eyes held hers, and she felt her heart doing all sorts of crazy flip flops. He made her feel like a teenager, but she knew they certainly were no longer that. If only...it would be so simple then...

"Anna might have a few things to say about that," Felicia told him as she sat up. She didn't hold it against him that he hooked up with his sister in law. Did it break her heart when she heard? More than she thought was possible...but with Noah in her bed what could she say, really?

Mac let out a harsh breath. "Don't tell me you actually believe I'm sleeping with Annie."

Felicia's eyes jerked around. After a moment she smiled. "What can I say? You're a con artist...I guess I bought your con this time."

His eyes ran over her bare skin, causing a slow fire to start in her and build as every second passed. "I want that good doctor boyfriend of yours dead."

"You do, huh?"

"But I won't kill him...I wouldn't do that...still...don't tell me you're in love with him or that you have anything like we have with him...don't say that to me, okay? Just say you are done with him...say this year long nightmare of being apart is over..."

She sucked in a breath. For a second they just stared at each other, and then she was leaning over and kissing him again, his hand was moving to her thigh, and they were coming back together again. For Felicia knew now that no matter how long Mac stayed away, working or conning or setting off bombs, that he would always come home to her and she would always be there waiting for him.

XXXXXXXX

"I'm starting to get nervous," Ned admitted to Jax as they sat on the Quatermaine yatch. Both had drinks in their hands, knocking back Bloody Mary's at nine in the morning.

"Don't punk out now. The odds are in our favor. You got Robert and that motley crew of con artists working on this. You said Faith hired someone too...just find out when they plan on delivering to her and we can be there waiting to relieve her of it. There is no way we can not end up with the painting. We are the only ones who know all the players...no one knows we are in on this together...not even Lois knows who I sent to see Robert." Jax smiled. "We are the ones pulling all the strings."

Ned downed his drink. "But once it is done...think of all the people who will be gunning for our heads...Corinthos...Faith...Lois...two of those our stone cold killers and the last is my ex-wife. Believe me she is lethal when pissed."

"Sonny won't know it was us. Lois won't know how much was in the accounts. Throw her two million and call it a day. As for Faith...you really didn't think we could let her live to tell this tale, did you? She would never stop coming for us..."

Ned's eyes drifted close. He suddenly knew what the bad feeling that was engulfing him was...it was the sound of prison doors slamming close...and a newspaper headline that read:

Quatermaine Heir Convicted of Murder in the First Degree.

Jax said, "One life...for all that dough...it's a small price to pay and you know it. But if you want out...if you want to forever be under the thumb of your family...never have your own fortune to use as you see fit...you can get out now. I can do what needs to be done and gladly spend the whole 200 million on my own. If you want out...say so now, Nedly."

"I'm in."


	19. Nice Day for a White Wedding

_Note- Thanks to everyone who is still reading and reviewing this. Maya asked for some flashbacks, so this chapter has some mini ones._

**Chapter 19- Nice Day for a White Wedding**

That Saturday night Luke's Club was shut down for the wedding. Only people who knew about Scorpio's Eight could come because the crew was never seen in public as a group. They were all known to frequent the bar but, with their reputations, people figured that was for the cheap booze or back room gambling.

If anyone asked what tonight was about Luke would lead them to believe it was a illegal Monte Carlo event with craps and Baccarat games being played.

The guest list included the crew and Laura, Bobbie, Tony, Holly, Jagger, Stone, Anna, Mac, Felicia, Georgie and Maxie, Robin, Patrick, Lulu, Gia, Skye and Coleman. They were all either family or fellow criminals.

Emily was dressed in a very short, strapless white dress. It was the polar opposite of the Vera Wang designer gown she would wear at St. Timothy's in the morning.

Everyone was laughing and joking until Robert called out "Time to do this damn thing. All right, you know the drill. All quiet in front of the outsider. Not a peep and that means you Jackal."

"Aw, Boss, I know that...do you think The Jackal would compromise such a wondrous and magical occasion as the day that Romeo and his Runway Girl make their holy union of souls? I never would..."

"Lulu," Luke said

Lulu looked at her boyfriend, who stood next to her with his arm around her waist, "Jack."

"Yeah, Spence?"

"Silence," she said.

The priest was brought in blindfolded, and more than a little nervous. Robert had paid him- through a wire transfer- more money than the church usually saw in three months of Sundays but for that he had to don a bandana over his eyes, stand in a deserted alley, and be picked up by two silent men. He didn't even know the true identity of who he was marrying, so the union would be less than legal in the eyes of New York State and the Lord. But the man who brokered the deal didn't seem to care.

The priest was hoping to just get out of here alive tonight. He swore he would never walk on the criminal side of town again if he did. He would just have to figure out a different way to pay for new choir robes from now on. He couldn't stop shaking as the music started.

It wasn't the typical Here Comes the Bride, instead he heard:

_This Romeo is bleeding  
But you can__'__t see his blood  
It__'__s nothing but some feelings_

_this old dog kicked up_

_It's been raining since you left me  
now I'm drowning in the flood  
_

_You see I've always been a fighter __but without I give up._

_I can't sing a love song like the way it's_

_meant to be_

_I guess I'm not that good anymore,_

_but baby that's just me._

_And I will love you_

_  
And I__'__ll be there forever and a day _

_Always_

_  
I__'__ll be there till the stars don__'__t shine  
Till the heavens burst and  
the words don__'__t rhyme_

_  
And I know when I die_

_you__'__ll be on my mind_

_  
And I__'__ll love you _

_always  
_

**Lucky couldn't help but grin **from ear to ear as Emily started down the makeshift aisle toward him. Everyone who knew them best, and loved them anyway, was there and he knew this night was more than he deserved to get in his life.

But she never failed to make him feel that way. Since he was just thirteen years old he had loved her. Unlike The Hitter, who had tried to kill his need for Carly in the bed of other women only to find out he never could, Lucky hadn't ever been with anyone else but Emily. And he didn't wonder what he had missed a bit.

He knew what he had, those brown eyes that trusted him and thought he was actually a good man, that was his fuel to survive this world. He couldn't imagine who he might be if she hadn't walked up to him on the first day of Junior High and said _"Don't be sad."_

"_I'm not. What would make you say that? I don't look sad, do I??"_

"_You're new, right?" she had asked._

"_Just got back to town, actually."_

"_I was new last year. And believe me the kids around here are evil. You better stick by my side."_

And then she headed off to the cafeteria for lunch and he followed. He stuck right by her side for every day after that- working hard to keep her from being sad just like she had done for him- until they made it to this point and she was taking his hand and mouthing "I love you, Lucks."

(_If you told me to cry for you  
I could _

_  
If you told me to die for you  
I would _

_  
Take a look at my face  
There's no price I won't pay  
to say these words to you  
Well, there ain't no luck  
in these loaded dice _

_  
But baby if you give me just one more try  
We can pack up our old dreams  
and our old lives ._

_Always _

_  
And I'll be there forever and a day _

_Always _

_  
I'll be there till the stars don't shine  
Till the heavens burst and  
The words don't rhyme _

_  
And I know when I die, _

_you'll be on my mind _

_  
And I'll love you _

_Always_) ( Bon Jovi)

The song ended, the priest started to speak, his voice shook a little, " We are gathered here tonight to join the lives of Romeo and...um...right, yes, Runway Girl...it is not everyday that two people such as these find each other in this fast paced and dangerous world we live in but when they do it is surely...a blessing of God. This union today is the start of many years of joy, happiness, and facing their struggles together for today they become one, instead of two..."

**Zander hated when people rambled** like, he felt, this priest was now.

He hadn't been in a church since that time in Key West when the whole con went to hell and Robert was shot. It was the only time they spilled blood on a job, and it was what led Robin to her ultimatum that her parents get out of the life for good.

It had almost been the end of Scorpio's Eight that night. So Zander, Spinelli, and Carly found this empty little white church, broke in, lit candles and begged God to save the man they all thought of as a surrogate father.

Meanwhile, Luke got drunk. Mac and Anna paced outside the surgical unit. Jason got revenge for them all and put a round of bullets in the man who had shot Boss.

Gia had caught the first plane down there , and when she got to Zander he could see in her eyes she was hoping his days of conning were done for good. He had always felt like a hell of a lucky bastard for even getting her to fall for him in the first place. Every other woman before her bought his stories about being a blue collar everyday average joe, but Gia never believed a word of that.

They were in Jake's when he spotted her. His eyes couldn't look away, his feet moved to her side on their own accord. He ordered some shots and set one in front of her._ "Hello, thief," he had said._

_She looked him up and down. "No, from the looks of you... that is more your style."_

"_Oh, really? Well, the moment I saw you, you stole my breath away."_

_Gia burst out laughing, then downed her shot and his._

_Zander introduced himself and said that he worked in a warehouse. She leaned in close and asked "Uh-huh, now what is the real story? I can see hell in your eyes...you cause this world a bunch of trouble, don't you?"_

He didn't admit it then but, in time, she came to know her first impression was dead on. By then though he was so deeply in love with her that every time she dumped his sorry ass , he simply worked overtime to win her back. Zander knew a good thing when he saw it, and Gia Campbell was the best he had ever laid eyes on.

"Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to honor and cherish in good times and bad..." The priest was asking Lucky.

**Carly winked at Jason** with a look that said _That will be us soon, Hitter._

When he was younger, Jason never expected to get married. He never expected to live to see thirty, truth be told. And The Hitter certainly never expected to be able to tame Sweet Caroline. Whether he had done that now or whether that was simply impossible, he knew he could never let Carly walk away from him again.

He didn't just count the days that she was away, he had counted the seconds.

Jason never thought he would love her like this. It had been just a business thing at first. The con required them to pretend to be married. It was shortly after she ditched Jagger and Florida to hunt down the Spencer side of her family. She demanded a spot in Scorpio's Eight but Luke told her to forget about it. She threatened to bring down the law, and her wrath– which was worse- on them if they didn't let her in.

So Boss concocted a test. The Hitter would be stuck with pretending to be her hubby for one weekend in New York. If they could con someone out of 1 million dollars and not break their cover, she was in. By Saturday night they had the money. By Sunday morning, they were in bed together having the wildest fake honeymoon ever in the known history of time.

"_Don't think I like you," she had said right after screaming his name at the top of her lungs._

"_Nah, I would never think that."_

"_Good. Now ...don't you freaking stop."_

_He grunted the question,"Do you...think...I could...?"_

Jason had gotten hooked on her quick. She was like a drug, his favorite kind of high. But they never called it love. Nope it was sex and thrills, grifting and gunning, finding suckers and sucking them dry. It was a version of heaven on earth that only a con man could love, and they both did.

"Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love and to cherish in good times and bad..." the priest asked Emily.

**Bobbie smiled at her** husband. Tony was a law abiding, upstanding doctor, like Robin and Patrick. They were the only ones in the room- besides the still quaking with fear priest and Mac's kids- who weren't straight up criminals of some sort.

Bobbie had done it all back in the day. She was Luke's first partner in crime. He put his baby sister to work picking pockets at six and, later, she loved him for that. It taught her to never wait for a man to give her what she wanted out of life. But she had retired years ago, to raise little Lucas who was now off at college and had no clue that most of his family was wanted by the law in all fifty states and three other continents. Those cops were looking for people with different names, though, different hair color, different accents. They would never connect the dots, because Robert made sure they couldn't.

"You may now kiss your bride."

Lucky pulled Emily close, and she came into his arms laughing with joy. "Hey now, Romeo, you're mine."

"I always was, baby."

His lips came down on hers and the kiss was hotter than should be witnessed by others. Soon they heard groans from the crowd, and Lucky pulled away. Emily gave him a_ You are so bad_ look.

Jagger and Stone stepped forward and escorted the priest back to the car. They were in charge of bringing him to and from the ceremony.

As soon as the priest was gone, the room exploded in cheers and congratulations.

Holly yelled "Pour the champagne!"

The glasses were passed around and Luke gave a toast. "To my son, who is an even better thief and liar than I am, and his lovely bride- the prettiest angel faced girl in all of Port Chuck- I wish you all the best this crooked low down world has to offer! And, remember, if they won't give it to you...there's no shame in taking it by any means you can think up. To Lucky and Emily and happy friggin ever."

"Happy friggin after!" everyone yelled


	20. Love You To Death

_Note- Who else is thrilled that Ocean's Thirteen came out? I know I am!_

**Chapter Twenty -****Love You To Death**

**Scorpio's Eight **danced late into the night at the wedding, while across town, Todd walked back into the motel room and reported to Blair, as he did everyday after he went out scouting the Corinthos property.

"I found out that next Thursday he is leaving on a business trip to Puerto Rico and taking half the guards with him."

"How did you hear that?"

"I had a listening device where you can be a block away and pick up conversations. He has some kind of jamming signal around his compound but a car full of his men drove right by me talking about it and I picked that piece of information about his trip up."

Blair thought for a moment and then said, "So you better get your ass moving and kill old Sonny boy before Wednesday is over."

"Considering his security, I just don't think I can..."

"Oh, Todd, you can. You will. You better."

A shiver shot down his spine. She had a tendency to do that to men, and not in a good way.

xxxxxxxxxxx

**Later on that night**, as the music raged inside the bar room, Mac ducked into Robert's office.

His brother gave him a hard look. "You're cheating on my wife already, huh?"

"Lets end this feud," Mac said.

"Okay, stand still and I'll shoot you." Robert reached in his desk and pulled out a bottle of whiskey. He opened it and took a slug.

Mac sat down and said. "You noticed, obviously, that I'm back with Felicia."

Robert nodded, bitterly. "You walked on Anna. How the hell do you live with yourself? You're loyal to nothing and spit in the face of the people who trust you. Get the hell out of my sight."

"You are not only deluded, you're drunk. Get it together before your next job or you'll end up six feet under. And then _you _will be the one who breaks Anna's heart. I never could cause I never had it. That was always your gift to treasure or waste." Mac stood back up, looked him up and down, and said "And waste it you did. Stop hurting her like this. For some bizarre reason she loves you and...in case you forgot, so do I."

Then Mac walked out, leaving Robert with only one thing to do: take another drink.

XXXXX

**Lucky lifted Emily** onto the bar, and with his teeth, removed her garter belt.

The guys in the crowd hooped and hollered. He tossed it over his shoulder and Stone, who was now back from taking the priest home, caught it.

Lucky picked Emily up, so that her head was above his, and turned around so that she didn't face the crowd. She tossed her bouquet and Gia caught it.

Then Emily slid down her husband's body and caught his lips in a intense kiss, that made him want to get her the hell away from the prying eyes of their friends and family.

Carly said to Jason, "Play me my song, why don't you?"

He walked over to the jukebox and soon it was blaring out of the speakers. A bunch of wasted wedding guests started dancing to it, and trying to sing along. But, except for Carly, they all messed up the lyrics.

(_Getting born in the state of Mississippi,  
Poppa was a copper and Momma was a hippie._

_  
In Alabama, she would swing a hammer.  
Price you gotta pay when you break the Panorama._

_  
She never knew that there was anything more than poor.  
What in the world does your Company take me for?_

_Black bandana, sweet Louisiana,  
Robbing all the banks in the state of Indiana.._.) ( Red Hot Chili Peppers)

**Jason had Carly's **hips pulled close to his body, they barely moved to the beat, as she sang loudly and he whispered into her ear "_She's a runner, rebel and a stoner._

_  
On her merry way saying 'Baby, what you gonna?'_

_  
Looking down the barrel of a hot metal 45  
Just another way to survive...'_

The sound of his low, sexy words made her knees go weak, which was quite a feat for a woman who had stared death in the eye about a hundred times and never blinked once.Of course, The Hitter did things to her body a bullet never could. He was truly something to get scared over, crazy over, and lose all sense of reason.

**Stone was surprised**earlier, when dark haired, dark eyed eighteen year old Georgie Jones asked him to dance. They had stayed in each other's arms for five songs. But he was a good guy- and she was simply too young , too wide eyed and innocent still -so dancing tonight would be all they could ever share.

**His brother** didn't have quite the same attitude concerning twenty-one year old Maxie Jones. She was legal, Jagger figured, and fair game. When she grabbed his ass, and nodded toward the supply closet, he didn't have to ask what she had in mind.

Between kisses that were as hot as he ever had, which threw him for a loop (_who knew small town girls could kiss like that?_), she asked "What kind of name is Jagger?"

He shot back, after nibbling on her lips, "What kind of name is Maxie?"

She didn't answer, as his mouth moved to her neck. "You're some kind of criminal...like the rest of them out there..."

"We don't talk about that, little girl." He pulled back and she pressed him against the wall.

Looking right in his eyes, she said "I'm one too..a grifter...but.." she kissed him hard and fast "don't tell my daddy...he would kill me and then..." she unbuckled his jeans "he would blow.. you... up."

Jagger's eyes drifted close and he wondered how he always hooked up with the crazy ones.

_With a name like Dani California  
Day was gonna come when I was gonna mourn ya  
A little loaded she was stealing another breathI love my baby to death_)

**Lucky and Emily** didn't even make it through the song. He was more than ready to take her suite at the Port Charles Inn. Grabbing her hand, he pulled his laughing bride toward the door.

The guests all shouted good byes and well wishes. He hugged his mom and then his Aunt Bobbie.

Luke kissed Emily's cheek. Lulu hugged her and whispered, "Keep taking good care of him, okay."

"I plan to," Emily told her with a smile.

(_California, rest in peace,  
Simultaneous release.  
California, show your teeth.  
She's my priestess. I'm your priest.  
Yeah, Yeah_...)

**As Lucky and Emily slipped out into the alley** and then onto a motorcycle and zoomed off into the night, Gia felt a cold breeze brush over her skin.

She bit her lip and looked at Zander, who was across the room laughing his ass off over something Spinelli, his best friend, was saying. She loved the way he looked when he was happy. All Gia wanted was for everything to always be as good as it was tonight. But her mama raised her to be smarter than that and to know better, you could only play these odds so many times before snake eyes came up.

And that is why she wanted her man far from all these people- and the sooner the better- before it was just too late for any more dreams to come true.

(_Down in the badlands she was saving the best for last  
It only hurts when I laugh_

_  
Gone too fast) ( Red Hot Chili Peppers)_

Note- some lyrics could be wrong. I found it impossible to find two sites with the same verison of this song.


	21. There is No Later

Note- _This poor neglected story has been on hiatus. It will get done eventually- come hell or highwater_.

Road Runnerz asked for an update so here are two new chapters.

**Recap- Robert Scorpio runs a crew of con artists. They have been hired to rob Sonny Corinthos. **

**Scorpio's Eight **

**Chapter Twenty One- There is No Later**

"So," Skye said, dragging out the word.

She sat with Luke inside of her hotel suite. She wore a silky black dress that skimmed her knees. They had just came back from dinner at the restaurant upstairs at the Metro Court.

She smirked at him and asked "Is this the last job then?"

Her eyes danced with amusement. They silently teased him about the fact all of Scorpio's Eight went into retirement the year before- as if a con artist could ever really walk away.

Luke wore a suit that was messy chic. His hair stuck up in a way that would have made her sworn he hadn't combed it all today. Still he pulled it off and somehow managed to look like a roguish badass.

He sipped his bourbon. Let it slide down and marinate over much abused liver before he answered, "For some of them, yeah. The Kid wants to start playing family man. I bet Caroline talks The Hitter into a year long honeymoon on some island where she doesn't have to wear more than a bikini and they don't leave until she gets so bored she's picking pockets for the practice. But she'll never get out completely. Grifting is in her blood."

"Like yours."

He shot her a devilish grin. "Damn straight. Not all of us were born blue bloods."

Skye had been one of those once. Adam Chandler's first little princess. Heir to billions and the one he dreamed would take over the helm of his corporation one day. But she walked away from all that in a quest to prove she could make good without a bit of help from him.

She hadn't gotten into this lifestyle because she loved pretending to be someone else, or stealing, or living a double life. She did it because she wanted to be rich and didn't want to ever get her wealth from being inside of a boardroom. That left very few options. Crime was the one that paid best.

She fell in with a bad man- but isn't that always the way it starts? And soon he had taught her how to crack a safe, scale a wall and- his most impressive trick- build a bomb. She ditched that boyfriend, perfected her skills, and made a reputation for herself.

It had been years since she had to ask anyone for anything. But with her self sufficiency came a certain kind of loneliness that no law abiding man could touch. That kind would never really see her- beyond her lovely long hair, her curves, her wit. He'd never see the wonderful dark parts of her heart, soul and mind. That is why someone like Luke got her. But his tendency to cheat is why she started to hate him, just after she started to love him.

Skye fled Port Charles and took over New York. She became notorious in certain circles. Her career couldn't have been hotter. But still she was alone.

Boss, the closest thing she had to a father, and the crew, her makeshift family, were all here. Luke was here. It felt amazing to be back. Like heaven. Like home.

She raised an eyebrow at him." We go tomorrow? You ready, old man? Been eating your wheaties and drinking your prune juice?"

He shook his head at her. "You have a mean streak in you, Red."

She chuckled.

Luke stood up and said, "I should mosey on, I suppose. Let you get to work."

Skye stood and moved closer to him. "Its been made for days now. I don't do last minute thrown together stuff like you do."

"Well, I'm talented enough to get away with it." He winked at her.

In the air, there was an electricity. It was a vibe that surrounded them, floating through the air, sinking into their skin, and coursing through their veins whenever a job was about to kick into high gear.

Her eyes filled with desire. Luke's widened slightly.

"Yeah?" he asked, pulling her close.

"Oh, yeah," she murmured as her lips moved to connect with his.

XXXXXXXXX

**Anna sat in her home office**, with headphones on her ears. Mac had planted a listening device in Robert's office during the wedding reception. There was nothing she loved more than getting the drop on her ex. It even made working for that psychotic bitch Faith Roscoe worth it.

Anna had figured the device- even though it was microscopic, as high end as anything used by the pentagon- would be found after a day. They used to sweep every 24 hours. But it looked like Robert had gotten lax lately. She tried not to let that worry her, but it nagged at the back of her mind.

If Robert was off his game, he had no business doing a job. _Damn you, Luke Spencer, you were supposed to be keeping an eye on him_, she thought.

But Luke was probably busy somewhere with booze and a broad, leaving his partner exposed at a point where Robert was his most fragile. Before Anna kept him together- making sure he stayed close to his daughter and brother, making sure he didn't ever feel like he had nothing to live for. But she hadn't been doing that for a good long while now, and he was suffering for it. Of course, Robert would never admit that to her.

She heard Robert talking to Lucky. "Didn't even take that pretty girl on a proper honeymoon, Romeo? You'll never keep her that way."

"Emily understands. She'll get her trip later. Anywhere she wants."

"Later, later, later," Robert sounded drunk, she noted. He went on, "Later. Sometimes there is no later. Oh well. Can't tell you kids anything. You'll learn. Want a drink?"

"Nah, I should get going. Rest up for the job. You want a ride home."

Robert grunted a negative response.

Lucky asked, "We're meeting up at 10 pm tomorrow, right?"

After a moment, he asked "Boss?"

"Treat her right, Romeo. Or you will regret it."

"I will. I swear. I love that girl like crazy."

"Yeah, yeah, I know you do. Now get out of here. Don't keep her waiting too long. They don't wait forever, you know?"

Another moment passed. Anna's heart twisted with pain.

Robert said, "Go! Good night! Go! I'm fine."

"Night, Boss."

XXXXXXX

Ned sat at his desk at ELQ. The same one where he made million dollar deals on a daily basis, where he controlled the fate of hundreds of employees and the fortune of his whole family.

He loaded the last bullet into the gun. His hands shook.

As bad as he wanted enough cash to finally be out from under his Grandfather's thumb, he also wanted to still be able to look himself in the mirror each day.

_Murdere_r, he thought, _I never expected to grow up to be one of those._

Faith's face darted through his mind.

She was truly evil, he had no doubts about that.

_Just one death_, he told himself,_ one little tiny death...there's no other way._


	22. Take a Hit Now

**Scorpio's Eight **

**Chapter Twenty Two- Take a Hit Now**

**The next day**

**Sonny sped through the streets **of Port Charles in his jag, the tires flying over the rain soaked road. He knew he should have left guards on Carly. Just because he paid those guys from Miami off didn't mean they would disappear. Though, after today, he would make sure they did.

He could still hear the terror in her voice when she called him, "Someone's in my house...oh my god, help me...plea-" the line went dead.

Sonny didn't think about anything but getting to her. He was at The Metro Court having dinner with Lois when the call came. Giving her a vague line about business, Sonny literally ran for the stairs.

Carly needed him. There was something in her eyes, every time he ever saw her, that made him long to rescue her from herself and the world. Now here was his chance, he only prayed he got there in time.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**Jason asked**, "Do you think he bought it?"

Carly smiled. "He bought it. Now you better get out of here before my knight in shining armor shows up." She stood in front of the mirror, putting on make-up that would make it look like she was beaten up.

"You sure you can handle this?" What he meant was_ You sure you can avoid sleeping with that jackass this time?_

Carly gave him a look. "You doubting my skills?"

He came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Never." Jason kissed her neck.

"Mmm. So good. You better stop before I say '_Hell with this con_,' and take you right now."

He smiled but took a step away.

They both loved this. The feeling that filled their guts once the con got started. It made it all worth while. It made them both feel alive. Everything started to move fast, like a roller coaster out of control, until the job moved with a life of its own. Each player had to do his part to perfection and, when they did, the crew became a force that could not be stopped. It was power and greed and thievery at its best.

(_Don't you wanna go for a ride?  
Just keep your hands inside  
and make the most out of life._

_  
Now don't you take it for granted)_

Carly's eyes met his in the mirror. Without any words she ordered him to come back to her alive. He nodded, then Jason slid from the room.

**XXXXXXXXXXXX**

**Robert hated when it rained **on the day of a job.

Though Luke said he was full of it, Robert considered that bad luck. But everything was in place, all the players knew their parts, it would flow like a well orchestrated dance, there was no reason to not do it today.

He sucked in a deep breath as he got dressed. His eyes moved to the mirror. Where had the last thirty years gone?

Robert remembered what it was like to be twenty five- bold and brash, and living so close to the edge that every breath felt like his last. Anna had been by his side, her skills as finely honed as his, never one to take his orders, always pushing him to be better and faster and more cunning or else she would steal his score right out from underneath him.

The first time they made love, he was hooked on her for life. Did he tell her that then? Hell no.

Should he tell her that now? Would it make a difference? How could his own brother be the man she needed instead of him for this last year?

He pushed those thoughts away. On his hands, he slid on a pair of surgical gloves, then put black gloves over those.

Time to go to work.

(_Life is like a mean machine.  
It made a mess outta me._

_  
It left me caught between-  
like an angry dream I was stranded_)

He had screwed up at being a husband, father, brother, even friend. But he never messed up at this.

Robert Scorpio was a true professional when it came to conning. And he had to be, especially now, considering it was all he had left. 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**Gia had to fight the urge **to throw her body in front of Zander as he walked out the door of their brownstone.

She still, after all these years, didn't know why he did this. Why he suited up in all black and slipped off into the night to steal or why he felt it was thrilling to wear a disguise, be someone else long enough to take what wasn't his, what he hadn't earned and didn't deserve.

"Smile, baby," he said as he gave her a good-bye kiss. "This will all be over soon."

The way he said it, so soft and sure, it nearly made her believe.

(_And I'm steady but I'm starting to shake  
and I don't know how much more I can take._

This is it now,  
everybody get down.

_  
This is all I can take.  
This is how a heart breaks_.)

She pulled him into another kiss, taking it slow, pressing her slightly rounded pregnant stomach against him._ I will not cry_, she ordered herself, _He's coming back to us...he is. He has to._

Gia held on hand against his cheek and said "Be careful out there. Remember...this baby of ours and me...we love you-" despite her best efforts she started to cry.

"Shhh, come on, now. I love you both, too. I'll be home in a few hours. This is an easy score. Won't be no big thing."

She nodded, as the lump in her throat only grew and her hands clutched his shirt. _Damn him! Damn all of them and their con artist ways_, Gia silently cried, _I love him. I've only ever loved him. Don't take him from me._

There were some people born to live this sort of life and others who never could. Gia knew it wasn't for her. She hadn't been sleeping lately, was barely eating, and her cosmetics business was suffering from lack of attention. She needed to know Zander was safe, and through with the crew for good.

He pried her fingers off of his shirt, kissed her palm and then let go. "I love you, G."

Zander hurried past her and out the door, as she stood there sucking in huge gulps of air. Minutes later, when she calmed down she said, into the now empty living room, "I love you, too, Z."

(_You take a hit now._

_You feel it break down_

_  
Make you stay wide awake.  
This is how a heart breaks_.)

XXXXXXXXXXX****

Todd had pulled out of the Metro Court parking lot right after Sonny. He tailed him as he raced across town. This was the first time he caught the mob boss with a guard. He watched him pull up in front of a cottage, jump from his Jaguar, and run up to the doors. Sonny went inside without knocking.

Reaching into his glove box, Todd pulled out a gun. A slow smile crossed his face.

They were in the woods, no one would even hear the shot. He could be back to Blair's side in an hour, telling her how Sonny had begged for his life, how sorry the man professed to be, and how, in the end, it made not a damn bit of difference.

He pulled his bag out of the backseat and slid on a mask. Sonny wouldn't even know who took his life.

Todd always got his man. Blair would have it no other way. He only hoped this was the last time he had to do something like this to prove his love.

_(Feels so good you could cry,  
now won't you do what I told you._

_  
I remember when you used to be_

_shy._

_  
Yeah, once we were so_

_fine._

_  
You and I _

_why you gotta make it so hard on me?) ( Rob Thomas)_

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

**Lois ended up in Jax's hotel room **after Sonny ditched her. "It's in play," she said "How long until we hear something?"

Jax was bored with her. The look on his face said it all. That worried Lois because it was the first time in all the years they had been screwing on the side that he ever was anything less than captivated by her.

"When its done," he said as he poured himself another drink. He had been doing more of that lately too.

She wondered if he was cut out for this kind of takedown, after all. So far, Jax held more of the cards that she did, while she was doing all the heavy lifting- having to live with Sonny and sleep with him and promise to love him and have his babies. It made her sick.

Anything she ever felt for Sonny died in high school when he threw her over for Connie. Now all she wanted was some sweet revenge and lots and lots of stolen cash to make up for the life he didn't give her back then. He should have known better than do wrong a girl from Bensonhurst.

(_You take a hit now you feel it break down  
Make you stay wide awake  
This is how a heart breaks)_

_End of Chapter_

_Note- This story will probably get bloody in the chapters to come. Like the end of a lot of heist movies, not everyone can survive when greed and lust surpass morals._


	23. All Fun and Games

**Thanks for reviewing! They really helped to inspire me to write some more chapters. I think what caused my writer's block on this story before was not wanting to write the actual heist. But here goes...**

**Scorpio's Eight**

**Chapter Twenty Three- Fun and Games Till Someone Gets Hurt**

Jason drove the black windowless van around the access road to the lake behind Sonny's home. Zander sat in the passenger seat. Spinelli was in the back with his laptop open. Lucky was next to him, he rolled his head from side to side on his neck, loosening his muscles as he went into working mode.

The van was dead silent.

All the men in there knew they were doing this job for one reason alone: the thrill of getting away with it. They were risking their freedom, their chances to be with the women they loved, and their very lives because they were addicts.

And their drug of choice was thievery.

(_Hey now, all you sinners  
Put your lights on, put your lights on  
Hey now, all you lovers  
Put your lights on, put your lights on _) ( Santana)

Jason killed the engine and asked "You jam the signal for the security, Jackal?"

"You know I did, Hitter."

Jason nodded and looked at Zander, "You good to go?"

"I'm good."

To Lucky, Jason asked "Romeo?"

"Good."

"Then lets do this thing."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Sonny didn't bother knocking on Carly's door. He rushed inside her cottage in the woods, in a panic, with his gun drawn.

Her breathless words, from when she phoned him, ran through his mind. _"Someone's in my house..."_

His dark eyes darted around the living room. It was empty. He heard a soft whimpering sound coming from upstairs and ran toward it at full speed.

(_Hey now, all you killers,  
put your lights on, put your lights on._

_  
Hey now, all you children  
Leave your lights on, you better leave your lights on_)

XXXXXXXX

Todd spied through the window of the cottage. He saw Sonny bound up the stairs. As soon as the mob boss was out of sight, Todd slipped into the house. He wore all black and a mask over his face. He carried a gun and a black canvas bag filled with everything he would need to get rid of this nuisance of a man once and for all. Maybe he could be back in Llanview in time to eat dinner at The Palace.

Briefly, Todd wondered if anyone else was in the house? He didn't particularly enjoy the idea of having to end another life just so that Blair would be satisfied that Sonny had paid for disrespecting her, but at this point, he wasn't about to let an opportunity pass to get rid of Sonny when he was unprotected by guards. If someone else was in the house, it would just be their unlucky day.

Todd started up the stairs.

(_Cause there's a monster living under my bed,  
whispering in my ear._

_  
There's an angel, with a hand on my head,  
she say I've got nothing to fear._

There's a darkness living deep in my

_soul._

_  
I still got a purpose to serve _

_  
So let your light shine, deep into my home.  
God, don't let me lose my nerve  
Lose my nerve_ )

XXXXXXXXX

Jax had done a lot of ruthless shit in his life. Slept with women just to get corporate secrets out of them. Ruined the companies of old men who were mere weeks away from retirement. Watched sharks in the business world cry over losing all they worked their whole life for, while Jax smiled

and counted his cash.

But never had he been party to murder before now.

As he sat in his hotel room with Lois he found his mind would not stop imagining what Faith would look like after she was dead. How much blood would there be? How quickly would she turn cold? What had ever made him think he could do this?

He kept drinking and trying to picture piles of glorious greenbacks but over and over he saw the blonde laying lifeless. Still he had his mind made up. Faith had to die. She would not let them take even a fraction of the money in Sonny's account, no she didn't work that way. Surely she had plans to kill Ned or blackmail him into giving up his share. Jax wouldn't be pushed aside so easily. She had to go.

"Its time I tell you the rest of the plan, Lois."

For a long moment he stared into his glass and didn't go on.

She snapped, "So tell me already. God! I hope you are up to this, Jax, cause honestly I put all my faith in you. Its been me and you for years now...in our own way...and if you can't do this...if you let me down now I don't think I could ever forgive you or-"

He cut her off, "You want this to work, then you're going to have to do everything I say, exactly as I say, no matter what you personally feel about it," Jax said in a cold voice. He was gaining control again, fighting back the little voice in his head that was his underused conscience. "And if you can't do that then get out now, while you are still able. Because this next part, Lois, it's only for the big dogs."

She smirked, "Ruff, ruff."

XXXXXXXXX

Anna was pressed against the stone wall that surrounded Greystone.

She had night vision binoculars out. Moments earlier she had heard the dogs- five pit bulls- barking and then growling. That noise had quieted now and she knew that Zander had drugged the animals. He always handled that part of a break in because he was the quickest on his feet. She watched as the guards outside the front gate scattered when an device was tossed from a car that drove by. It exploded. But Anna knew it was all flash and not anything that could have injured anyone. The bomb Skye made for the crew would be used to break into the vault where the painting was stored.

The lights in the mansion went out. Anna spotted a man with a rope climbing off the roof and down toward the window of the master bedroom. No guards came running. They must have responded to the secondary diversion that Jason and Lucky were responsible for creating. Both men would be long gone by the time the guards realized they had been lured into a trap and that the garage where they thought they saw a man dart into was filled with an odorless gas that would knock them all out.

Anna knew it was Robert repelling off the roof- dressed in all black with a large canvas bag hanging around his neck-that Luke was talking to him via walkie talkie and Luke made sure no cops got wind of the commotion at this mansion tonight. He would divert their attention by making sure they responded to false calls across town.

It was time for Anna to go in. Mac would be pulling the car around the back and getting past Robert's crew to be waiting for her when she came out with the painting. And she planned to get that painting from Robert. He deserved to lose for making her miserable this last year. Then, and only then, she might forgive his stubborn old ass.

She scaled the wall, crept across the lawn- past the passed out dogs- and tossed a metal claw up to the second floor ledge so she could climb the wall. She got inside the master bedroom less than five minutes after Robert's small bomb went off, blowing a hole in the wall and revealing the panic room where the painting was stashed.

Anna rolled into the room, ending up near the bed where she had some cover from Robert, who pulled his gun out at the sight of a black clad figure in the room.

With a smile, she raised her head so he could see her, and said "Now, is that anyway to treat your wife?"

XXXXXXXX

Sonny found Carly laying on the floor of her bedroom, crying softly. Her face was bruised and bloody. Her arms had huge black and blue marks where it looked like a man had grabbed her and shook her hard. She wore only a white slip.

He kneeled down. "Hey, I'm here. You're okay now." Sonny brushed her hair out of her face.

She choked out "You came...thank you..."

She looked at him, her eyes filled with so much pain you would think she had been near death. There was no way, even if Sonny made it out of here alive, he would ever think Carly had been playing him- the emotion in her eyes in that moment was too raw. He bought her act with his every breath.

The look she gave him started out fake, but it changed into something real when a masked man stepped into the room and put a gun to the back of Sonny's head.

(_God, don't let me lose my nerve  
Lose my nerve_

Hey now, hey now, hey now, hey now 

_hey now, hey now, hey now, hey now_ )


	24. Mad Love

**Scorpio's Eight**

**Chapter Twenty Four- Mad Love**

Sonny felt the cold metal of a gun press against the back of his neck. His eyes went to Carly's and he saw she was as shocked as him that the man who must have been the one to hurt her was still in the house. _He must have been hiding,_ Sonny thought, _waiting for me to show up._

He felt extreme guilt, born from his Catholic upbringing, that he had gotten Carly into this mess. He might not be the reason those loan sharks from Miami were hassling her but he should have done a better job of protecting her. He had given his word, and that, to him, still meant a hell of a lot.

He was crouched on the floor of her bedroom, over her beaten up body. His gun rest loosely in his hand, between his body and hers. Sonny fingers tightened on it as he prepared to spin around and shoot the man who held them at gunpoint.

"Not so fast," the man said. "Toss the weapon away from your body."

XXXXXXX

Carly knew it was about to get ugly in here and fast. If Sonny threw that gun away, they were both as good as dead. Whoever this guy was, he was obvious here for one reason: to kill this mob boss when no guards were around, thanks to her scheming, to stop him.

She couldn't let Sonny follow the man's instructions. Her hand slid against the floor and connected with the butt of the gun Sonny held.

The masked man barked out, "I said toss it now!"

"All right, all right," Sonny said quickly "I'm doing it." But he didn't move the gun even an inch. "We can make a deal, man. I could buy you a new life. How much one of those run these days? Five million? Ten? You can walk away from this low class buying a contract working man _job _of yours. Write your own ticket."

Sonny turned to look back at the guy, a fake smile on his face. While Carly's fingers wrapped over his on the gun. She could feel Sonny shaking slightly, but Carly was dead calm. She knew what she had to do in order to live through this and now it was just a matter of doing it. Like any job, the whole key was being able to go as far as you had to. She had always been able to without a moment's hesitation.

Sonny asked now, as he looked up at the masked man, "How that sound? You like that idea?"

"You know what?" the man said in an annoyed voice just before he bashed Sonny over the head with the gun, causing Sonny to collapse into a heap on the floor. "You talk too much."

The gun Sonny was holding was trapped between his body and the floor. Since Carly hadn't let go of it she was forced to pretend to huddle over Sonny, to keep hidden the fact she was holding onto the gun, and murmur "What did you do to him? I think you killed him."

Todd pulled the trigger, sending two bullets into Sonny's head. "No, now I killed him." Blood splattered up and covered the white slip Carly was wearing.

Carly whipped out the gun and shot a surprised Todd in the heart. He went flying backwards, hitting the wall, and the slid down to the ground. He was dead before he could blink another time.

"You just had to do this on my white carpet, didn't you?" Carly asked Todd as she stood up and ripped off his mask. "Whoever you are, you wasted your life on killing Sonny boy. Don't you know he was as good as ruined already?"

Sighing, she started to clean up the crime scene.

Her mind flashed back to the first time she saw a dead body. She was sixteen years old and in love with Jagger. He ran with a gang back then and one night a rival gang broke in and shot up the house where everyone hung out. It was killed or be killed time. Well her and Jagger were still here, so they hadn't been too slow or too scared to pull the trigger when need be. That time she was shocked by how quick a life could end, but that was fifteen years past now...these days there was not much that could shock her anymore.

XXXXXXXX

He stepped out of the panic room, gun in one hand and the painting in the other. It was of a naked woman with paint splotches over her body.

Robert, from beneath his mask, glared at Anna. She grinned at him.

The wall behind him was still smoking from where he blew a hole in it. He had 360 seconds to get back to the get away car that Skye was driving before the hired security company that worked for Sonny would be here to check on way his alarm was disabled and no one answered the phone to tell them the code word.

The Jackal could have hacked into the phone, diverted the call to a throwaway cell, and then told the company the code word (it hadn't been hard to get it out of Max, who Carly had wrapped around her finger, and he hadn't even known he gave anything away). But then Spinelli's voice would be on the security company's tape of the call and that could be used as evidence against them later. So they would have to get out before the company showed up.

Anna asked "You gonna keep pointing that gun at me like we aren't even friends anymore or move aside so I can have my painting?"

She stood up.

He said, "'Friad someone told you wrong. This here is _my_ painting."

She said to him, "300 seconds left and you still have to climb down to the lawn, get over that big stone wall and out to the car...you'll never make it with your bad knees. Just give me the painting and I'll cut you in for 2 percent."

She knew what this part of the plan, for him, entailed because she had bugged his office and overheard him and Luke go over it only hours before. She thought she knew everything about this job, but she had started listening to their conversations only after the wedding and didn't know quite as much as she thought.

He scoffed, "Cut _me_ in? A whole two percent. Wow, you are getting generous in your..."

"Do not say it," she warned right before he would have finished with the words 'old age'.

He smiled and headed out of the room with the painting. "If you wanted in then you should have just asked. Not hooked up with that bum and tried to make an end run around my loot."

"That bum, as you call him, is your brother, Robert."

"I don't have a brother anymore." He glanced at his watch. 175 seconds. Shit, he was running behind now.

But still he could not take his eyes off Anna. It had been so long since they worked together. They were at their best in these situations.

Both wore night goggles so they could see perfectly in the pitch black house.

"Just like you don't have a wife anymore?" Anna asked "You just have a painting. Bravo."

"Don't get rude because you showed up late to the party. You never ran behind when you worked with me. But then again, you aren't even supposed to be a thief anymore, are you? You wanted out of this life, our life, so..." he finally tore his eyes away from her " you are out."

He slipped out the window and climbed down to the lawn. She waited till he was running toward the wall before she scurried down and gave chase. Anna caught Robert on the other side of the wall, just as he was about to climb in Skye's car. Anna pulled out a syringe and shot him full of a tranquilizer that would paralyze him temporarily but not hurt him.

Bending over she whispered, "Sorry, dear, but you didn't leave me a lot of options. Maybe next time you will not think me unfaithful or unqualified quite so quickly. Because, you should know better than anyone, I am neither. I'll forgive you, if you forgive me. Think about it."

Skye opened the door, stood up, looked over the car at the scene of Robert laying in a heap and Anna taking the painting and asked "Couldn't you two do your foreplay on your own time?"

Anna chuckled. "Tell the crew _Sorry, mates, better luck next time_."

Then she was running away into the night with the stolen painting that held the numbers to off shore

accounts worth two hundred million dollars. The only problem was Anna had no knowledge of that little fact.

She thought the painting was wanted by her client Faith for emotional reasons. The woman was the ex-wife of Sonny and wanted to take something that was important to him- something that reminded him of his long lost perfect ideal of love, Lily.

But Faith could careless about who Sonny loved once upon a time, or who he was shacked up with now, or what he did with the rest of his life. All she carried about was money and power. The painting would give whoever got their hands on it both of those things.

And Anna was about to hand it over to a mad woman.


	25. Who Wants it More?

**Scorpio's Eight**

**Chapter Twenty Five** Who Wants It More?

Jax and Lois walked onto the Quatermaine yatch and down below the deck to meet Ned. Lois was dressed in a leopard print strapless mini dress; Jax wore a white bottom up shirt and black pants. The top few buttons of his shirt were undone, and it was more wrinkled than Ned had ever seen Jax wear. He seemed slightly buzzed too. Seeing this, Ned immediately wished he was high on something himself. Why hadn't he thought of that?

_How can I kill someone sober_? he wondered

Lois, seeing no painting in sight, pouted "You don't have it yet." She rolled her eyes, as if to say that Ned had, yet again, failed her.

"I just hung up with my partner," Ned said "The painting should be here soon."

"If you aren't double crossed," said Lois. "Don't you think its about time you tell me who you

brought into my scheme? I don't like being in dark about the person holding my share of a fortune."

"You'll see who it is shortly," Ned said "This is about over."

Lois' eyes darted between both men. "The only way this works is if we don't turn on each other at the last minute. Don't think about cutting me out. I know too much to be pushed aside now."

Jax walked over to the mini bar, took out a bottle of champagne and opened it. With a sneer, he asked Lois "Now would we do something like that? Never. Right, Ned?"

"Never," Ned agreed.

Lois' jaw clenched. _These asshole better not even think about it_, she thought.

She had agreed to go along with Jax's plan, when they were back at the Metro Court, but in truth the only plan she would work was her own and neither of these two former lovers had better get in her way.

XXXXXXXX

Skye called Jason. "We have a problem. Bring the van around. Now."

She clicked off her cell. Jason started up the van and began to drive around the lake towards the spot where Skye was supposed to pick up Robert. But then Spinelli said "Oh, this is not good. Not good at all." He was staring at a picture on his laptop.

"Talk," ordered Zander.

"A limo is pulling through the gates at Greystone right now. Since we killed the power, the gates are unlocked."

"Who is it?" asked Lucky, he had already had to tasered ten guards tonight and then drugged them, he didn't feel like hassling with a bunch of civilians too. They were always more trouble anyway- not understanding the rules of this life or anything, yapping about cops and judges and justice. It was tiresome, really.

Spinelli tapped on his keyboard "I am running the license right now. Come on, come on...they are getting out. Come on..."

"Quicker," Jason ordered

"I got it. It's...oh _hell_," Spinelli shook his head and said "It's Frankie Gianni."

"Chi-town mob kingpin Frankie Gianni?" groaned Lucky

"The one in the same," said Spinelli "And he's knocking on the door. It's open. If he tries it, he'll be tripping over passed out bodygaurds. Someone's got to get in there and stall him."

"I'll do it," Zander said. "Pass me the bag."

Lucky tossed it up to him. Zander pulled out a pair of glasses, contacts, and a blonde wig that made him look like a surfer dude. Then he slipped on a Hawaiian shirt. He shoved his gun into the back of his pants and said "Let me out here. Frankie is about to meet the Corinthos family pool boy- the only one left behind when Sonny took off for Puerto Rico."

Zander went running towards the stone wall, scaled it without much effort and then jogged up to the back door of the house and let himself in.

Jason drove around the house to meet up with Skye and see what was going sideways on her end of the job.

XXXXXXXX

Anna jumped into the late model Ford that Mac had waiting in the woods near the lake behind Sonny's house. Her whole face was lit up, she laughed and said "Like taking candy from a cocky ex-husband!"

Mac shook his head. This was all just fun and games for them. None of the crew really thought of what they did as a crime. It was more like the coolest underground Olympic event- The Long Con- and Scorpio's Eight were the undisputed champions.

Mac and Anna had been a part of making that legend but now, on their own, they broke it and took for themselves the gold medal. They knew that the rest of the crew wouldn't hold it against them but if they could steal the painting back, they sure as hell would not hesitate.

He hit the gas and they flew off the grass and back onto the gravel access road. They hung a quick left and headed away from Greystone, toward a country road that ran on the north side of the property. They had to get this painting handed over to their client as quick as possible or else they might be had by their own former friends. It was impossible to say what con Luke might come up with when he heard what went down. Neither Mac or Anna felt completely victorious yet.

XXXXXXXXX

Jason looked at Robert, who lay in the backseat of Anna's car where Lucky had picked him up and placed him. The Hitter asked, "You sure he's all right?"

"His breathing is regular and steady," Skye said "You know Anna wouldn't really hurt him."

"I can't believe she..," Lucky started

"Believe it," Skye said "She is a woman scorned. You pretty boys should know plenty about what happens when you do a good woman wrong." She motioned at Robert, who was drooling and staring at them in a pissed off way. "This is what happens."

Jason knew the security company would be at the door of Greystone by now. Zander would have to handle that. They were supposed to be off the property at this point. This is what you called, in the world of conning, the moment when the plan could be officially called All Fucked Up.

Spinelli was in the van, on a cell phone, reporting all this to Luke. The Jackal said "I can't get Anna or Mac on GPS because they are obviously using a throwaway car that they probably bought just for this and isn't even registered. And I don't think I'll spot them on any security camera's cause they will stay on the back roads. But I have hacked into a satellite and gotten an image of Old Mill Road, the one that runs north of Sonny's property. That is the way they would go if they want to avoid the security company who will be coming in from the south side. There are three cars on Old Mill right now. One of them has to be them- slipping off into the great unknown with our loot."

Luke chuckled. "Nah, they just think they are. I'll be in touch."

Luke hung up and then made a phone call.

XXXXXXXX

**Fifteen minutes later**

"Floor it,"Anna ordered Mac. "Pass that guy."

Mac did what she said. "We're good. Relax."

"We have to make it ten miles on this road before the turn off. You know how much can go wrong in ten miles? My ex might be down but don't count him out."

Mac cut his eyes over to her. He had a bad feeling he knew what she was about to confess.

Anna said, "I didn't give him quite as much of the drug as we had planned."

"Damn it, woman!"

"I couldn't do it , okay?! It was _Robert_."

"You think I wanted to drug my brother. You know I didn't. But if we are gonna do a job, we can't half ass it, you know that." Mac let out a long breath. "How long till he can move again?"

Anna looked at her watch. "Five, six more minutes top. That should get us far enough away."

Mac didn't really care about the payoff that was coming from Faith. He had been in this business a long time and had millions upon millions to show for it. But both him and Anna would feel like fools if they got the painting jacked from them minutes after they stole it from Scorpio's Eight.

"Next time," he said "I do the dirty work. You've gone soft."

She punched his arm. "Take that back."

He smiled at her but it fell away when he saw a black four door come flying off a side road at top speeds, then slam on its brakes and block the road.

"Go around it!" Anna ordered as she reached down to her ankle holster and pulled out a gun.

Suddenly red and blue flashing lights started to spin on the dashboard of the car blocking there way.

"Cops," Mac muttered. "We better play along or else we'll have a pursuit on our hands. Pull down the backseat and shove the painting in the trunk. Hurry. We'll have to talk our way out of this."

Anna scurried to get the painting hidden away, while Mac shoved there gloves and masks into the glove box. Anna got back in her seat just as two men got out of the four door and approached them. Two more cars were stopped behind Anna and Mac's vehicle.

Mac rolled down his window "What seems to be the problem, officer?"

_Author's note- Thanks to everyone who has reviewed recently and kicked my butt in gear with this story. _


	26. Don't Believe Your Eyes

**Scorpio's Eight- Don't Believe Your Eyes**

**Chapter Twenty Six**

Carly was wiping down her bedroom, removing or smearing beyond recognition, Sonny's fingerprints when Todd's cell phone rang. Using her rag she reached into his pocket and pulled he phone out. Though she knew that both of these dead bodies would have to be burned and tossed into the ocean where only the sharks would ever see them again, she didn't want to take any chances with getting her fingerprints on either of them or their stuff.

_Ring. Ring._

The caller ID said B.C.

_Blair Cramer, _Carly figured. She said "He ain't coming home, sweetie. You are going to have to find a new psychotic killer to be your kid's daddy, I suppose."

Carly dropped the phone back on top of Todd.

She couldn't work up any sympathy for either Todd or Sonny. Both men would have killed her in a second. Sonny, if he knew the truth about her conning him. And Todd would have put a bullet in her tonight just for witnessing what he had done.

These men had moved in a ruthless underworld that allowed no mistakes or second chances. Carly knew that her own number could be up at any second, it was part of the risk she accepted every time she went into a new con. But it had never gotten this bloody before now- only that one time when Robert got shot and he recovered quick enough. They had all pulled guns before, fired shots; Luke even wounded a federale in Panama during that crazy job in '95.

But this- having two dead dudes cluttering up her bedroom floor- was new. And she didn't like it.

Carly only hoped that Jason was having a better night than her.

XXXXXXXXX

Zander was deep into his con personality now- the Corinthos pool boy Teddy. He acted over the top and also clueless in an attempt to get Frank Gianni, a mob boss from Chicago who dropped in unexpectedly on Sonny- to think that Zander could be no help for him in finding Sonny.

Zander had already sent away the security team from the alarm company after convincing them that he caused the power outage by overloading the system with a machine he was using to drain the pool of water.

Now Zander stood right outside the front door, with Frank and his three guards, because if they went inside they would find passed out men who worked for Sonny all over the downstairs. Lucky was good at disabling the ones that didn't run into their trap in the garage and knocking them out with a sleeping agent that he carried on a rag. It wouldn't have worked as well as it had but the house was plunged into darkness only moments before and none of them had night vision goggles like Lucky did. He got the drop on each of them without much trouble.

Frank said, "Mr. Corinthos left you," he looked at Zander, with his shoulder length blond hair and thick glasses, like he was a walking joke "in charge of his whole estate while he is away? What are you trying to pull? Even Sonny ain't that ass backwards." Frank laughed and hit the chest of the closest man to him. His three guards laughed.

Frank asked them, "Right? Even Sonny don't leave this_ thing _with the keys to the compound." The mob boss' smile fell away and he glared at Zander "I know he's inside. And whatever the hell he is trying to do by killing the lights and hiding, like a little bitch, is not gonna work. I stopped by here tonight as a courtesy, but I can see that I should not have treated your boss as a man. No, he has not been that since Faith cut off his balls in the divorce. Letting a punta steal a piece of his territory..." he spit on Zander's feet "disgusting."

"Hey, my man," Zander said in a spaced out voice "I don't know what to tell you, dude. I just get the leaves out of the pool, dude. Cause he's got that big tree right over the center of it, man, and I don't know no nothing 'bout what goes on around here, dude. Like I could try to hit up my cellie, man, if you want. But I don't think I can get Mr. Corinthos, the big man himself, dude, cause he has me get my check from some lawyer over on 5th and that's the only digits I gots. You want her number? She's hot, dude."

Frank pushed Zander against the door.

Zander grabbed at his head, pretending it was hurt, but really he wanted to keep his wig on. "Oh, DUDE. That hurt. Come on, now, I don't know nothing bout nothing..."

"Shut the fuck up."

Zander shut up.

Frank said "Now you tell Corinthos I said he better be at that meeting on the island on Thursday. He will give me access to the docks here in Port Charles or he will lose whatever Faith didn't already take from him." Frank flicked Zander's forehead and said "You think you can remember all that, little pool boy?"

"Yeah, dude, I got it."

Frank stepped back and motioned for one of his men. The man stepped up and punched Zander in the stomach.

"The name is Mr. Gianni and I am not your dude." Frank said before turning and walking back to his limo.

XXXXXXX

A black four door came flying off a side road at top speeds, then slammed on its brakes and blocked the road.

"Go around it!" Anna ordered as she reached down to her ankle holster and pulled out a gun.

Suddenly red and blue flashing lights started to spin on the dashboard of the car blocking their way.

"Cops," Mac muttered. "We better play along or else we'll have a pursuit on our hands. Pull down the backseat and shove the painting in the trunk. Hurry. We'll have to talk our way out of this."

Anna scurried to get the painting hidden away, while Mac shoved there gloves and masks into the glove box. Anna got back in her seat just as two men got out of the four door and approached them. Two more cars were stopped behind Anna and Mac's vehicle.

Mac rolled down his window "What seems to be the problem, officer?"

A flashlight glared down at Mac, obscuring his vision of who the man was. The man also had a hat pulled down over his eyes. He wore a black trench coat.

"Road block," the man's voice was gruff and deep. "Open the trunk."

Mac thought he heard a trace of something in the man's tone- and it sent up a red light to him. The hairs on the back of his neck went up. He smelled a con. But if he was wrong, both him and Anna could be behind bars for a good long while.

He tried to look around the light and see the man's face but he couldn't. "What are you looking for, officer? I was just on my way home from my nieces place with my sister-in-law here. We ain't got anything in the trunk but some leftover tuna casserole that the dog probably won't even touch."

"Fugitive escaped tonight from Pentonville. We got to check every car. Pop the trunk, now, sir."

It was the last word that gave him away. No cop had every called Mac sir in his life. He looked at Anna. Without a word she knew that he suspected this was not on the up and up.

The second "cop" headed toward the car. His aimed his flashlight right into the car to blind them and called out "We got a problem, Mike?"

"Might have to run this guy in, Bob." Then to Mac, he said "License and registration, sir."

The second cop walked around the back of the car.

Mac opened his wallet and passed out the I.D. His hand bumped against the flashlight and knocked it away. His eyes locked on those of the cop. Mac went to throw the car in gear and take off when the "cop" jerked open the door.

He threw all his weight on Mac, causing Anna to jerk out her gun in response. But she wasn't the type to ever risk shooting a police officer and going to the slammer for the rest of her life- she had a grandbaby to watch grow up, after all. She tried to get a good look at the cop's face, from his build alone she knew he was not one of Scorpio's Eight.

Mac and the cop were struggling with each other. Anna grabbed hold of the cops neck and did a move that made him pass out, but the second before she did, his hand grasped the trunk latch and it opened.

Mac groaned as the dead weight of the passed out "cop" fell on him . Mac looked back through the windshield and saw the other "cop" grabbing the painting and running back to his car. He called out "Take good care of my brother for me, Bomber! I'll collect him later." He laughed, jumped in his four door sedan and peeled out.

Anna cursed as she looked down at the face of the man who had pulled them over. It was Stone Cates. They had seen him and Jagger at Lucky's wedding a few days before. Stone had been using a fake accent to talk to them, a sort of podunk lazy drawl.

"Lucas Lorenzo Spencer! Hell," she cursed in frustration. "Mark my words, he was behind that. He sent those Cates boys after us."

"Yeah, he did," Mac agreed. He gently removed Stone from the car and then waved off the cars behind him, telling them to pass him.

One car stopped and the driver asked "You guys need some help?"

"Nope. My drunk buddy just passed out."

"All right, then." The man drove off.

Mac asked Anna "You wanna help me get him in the backseat or what?"

"I want my painting back is what I want. This is not over."

Mac said "Faith will flip her crazy little head when she finds out she ain't getting no painting tonight."

"She's getting her painting."

XXXXXXX

Robert felt the feeling come back into his limbs slowly over a few minutes. When he could finally speak, from his seat in the backseat of Skye's car, he said "Turn this car around. The painting is still in the house."

Skye had left the van with Jason, Lucky, Spinelli and Zander at Greystone and she was taking Robert to see Robin and Patrick, so they could make sure he wasn't seriously injured. Though, it was only a precaution cause Skye had faith that Anna wouldn't actually do any permanent damage to him.

Skye kept driving toward Robin's apartment. "Sorry, Boss, but Anna has_ The Ever Faithful _now."

"No, Anna, has a fake. I was on the roof when I spotted her watching me from behind the stone wall, so I had to leave the real painting there and pull the look alike I had made up out of my bag."

Skye turned the car around. She pulled out her cell and called Jason. "Send the kid up to the master bedroom and have him pull the painting out of the panic room."

Jason asked "Didn't Boss already do that?"

"No. It was a Houdini." An illusion.

"We're on it," Jason said.

She hung up and asked Robert, "You actually went through the trouble to make a look alike and drag it along?"

"Chandler, when this much money is on the line you got to be ready for the double cross. We always make a look alike of jewelry we heist. Remember that Paris job? This painting is no different. I just didn't think the thief that would be coming after us would be my own wife."

"Ex-wife, Boss."

"Hmm. She thinks she got me. I can not believe she stooped to drugging me. I would only drug a stranger. I have standards, you know."

"Of course." Skye smiled. "Feeling all right now?"

"Good enough to finish this job and then track down Anna and have a nice, long..."

"Talk with her?"

"Yeah, talk." But that is not what he wanted to do, not at all. There was nothing hotter to Robert than a woman who could beat him at his own game and Anna had nearly done that tonight. God, he missed her like crazy. _How_, he wondered, _could she have all she wants in Mac when Mac isn't me?_

Note- if you go back to Chapter 23 you would see this-

_Anna knew it was Robert repelling off the roof- dressed in all black with a large canvas bag hanging around his neck_

in that bag was the painting.


	27. They Get You Coming and Going

_Thanks to everyone who has sent in reviews and reminded me that I need to keep working on this fic. It helps to motivate me. _

**Scorpio's Eight**

**Chapter Twenty Seven**

**They Get You Coming and Going**

Zander hung up his cell phone, after talking to Spinelli, and then ran up the stairs at Greystone, two at a time.

Using a flashlight to cut through the darkness, he made his way into Sonny's master bedroom. Inside the secret room he found the painting.

"There you are, gorgeous," he said, with a huge devilish grin on his face.

220 million dollars looked damn good, no matter if it did come in the shape of one ugly ass painting.

XXXXXXXX

Luke laughed when Jagger walked into Luke's Club with the painting. "Easy come, easy go for Mac and Anna tonight, huh?"

"Looks like it," Jagger said as he passed over the painting.

"You did good. Where's that brother of yours?"

"Had to leave him behind. I wouldn't have done it but I know he's safe with them. They might cuss him out but won't do him any real harm."

Luke nodded and poured them some drinks.

"Stone's a good kid. Little too straightlaced for this life, though, if you ask me. He don't even seem to like the con."

"Not like the rest of us do, nah, but its all he knows."

"I heard that," Luke said. It was all him and Bobbie had known since childhood. They hustled to survive and never cared it wasn't exactly legal.

Luke raised his glass and clinked it with Jagger's. "To the life."

"The life," Jagger repeated.

Luke smiled as he looked at the painting. "You want it?"

"Me? I don't have much use for art. Besides I figure you took it tonight for a reason, no? Got a client waiting on it? Or was this just a revenge thing? Carly didn't really fill me in on the details."

"We never talk shop when we don't have to. You knew as much as you needed. But whatever we had planned for The Ever Faithful don't have anything to do with this little baby. She's nothing more than a doppelganger."

Jagger shook his head. "You had me play State Trooper for a fake?"

"You don't think that I'd let Anna and Mac just walk away with what they think is our score, do you? That's just bad form. Besides, they'd never let us live it down." Smiling, Luke downed his drink and poured another.

Just then the fire alarm went off, and about five seconds later firemen rushed inside the building.

"Did you call 911?" asked a fireman, as he came through the door."Where's the blaze?"

"There isn't one, far as I know," said Jagger.

"You will have to evacuate while we search."

Luke started to protest but just then the sprinklers went off. He grabbed the painting and they headed outside. Both were on high alert for a ambush. The area was lit up with fire trucks.

They started to head for Jagger's Hummer but before they made it there, Maxie Jones came walking up.

"Leave a cigar lit again, Luke?" she asked "I hope you haven't managed to burn down my favorite bar in town."

"Have no fear. The booze is safe, darling."

"What are you doing here tonight?" Jagger asked

"Came to see if I could find you, actually," Maxie said to him. "We have a problem. It seems your brother slept with my sister the day after that wedding. And the ass has not called her since. He broke her heart, if you want to know the truth. My father is thinking about pressing charges since she is only seventeen."

"I could have sworn Georgie is eighteen already," Luke mused, as his eyes darted around.

"She lets people think that. She's trying to grow up too fast. Georgie has too damn bright of a future for me to allow anyone to crush her spirit." She poked Jagger in the chest. "You keep Stone away from her or I will see him locked up under the jail, and believe me, there will be no key to be found, you hear me?!! You and me screwing around, that was just drunken fun, but Georgie is not like that. Stone used the wrong woman this time."

Jagger said "I don't know what your sister has told you but I seriously doubt she has any sort of relationship with my brother at all. They danced a few times. The rest of this is clearly a figment of her over imaginative teenage mind."

"Are you calling my sister a LIAR?"

Luke and Jagger eased back a step as Maxie started to rant at them. "Let me tell you something, Mr. Blow Into Town and Screw the Locals, my sister has never told a lie in her life. If she says she slept with Stone, she SLEPT with Stone. Your brother is an asshole. If he knocked her up I will make him sorry he ever laid a hand on her, and my father will make sure that precious Hummer of yours, your house, your mama's house and anything you even think about owning for the rest of your life

is turned into a pile of rubble. And that is just for starters..." She got close to Jagger, shoving a finger in his face, while her other hand slid into her bag.

"Okay, okay," Jagger said "calm down."

Luke's phone rang. He turned away and answered it. His eyes searched the crowd for Mac or Anna.

"Hello? Hello? What the...bad connection, I guess. I hate these damn cell phones. Hello?"

Maxie ranted on "You fucking calm down, I'm calm! You can't mess with a Jones girl and get away with it."

Thud.

Luke still clutched the painting in one hand. He went to spin around and see what had just hit the ground behind him, but then he felt something shoved into his back. A second later he fell to the ground.

Maxie smiled and shoved the taser gun back in her purse.

A fireman rushed over. "Are they okay? What happened?"

"I don't know. I think they might be on drugs," Maxie said with concern in her voice. "Oh my god, please help my Uncle Luke! Just hold on, Uncle Luke, you'll be okay."

The fireman said into his walkie talkie "I need a bus to this location. We have two victims down."

As soon as he bent to take Luke pulse, Maxie picked up the painting and said "I better go call his daughter. She will be so worried." She headed for her car and, within two more minutes, was out of the parking lot.

She called Anna. "It's done."

XXXXXXXXXX

Anna smiled. "We got it back."

Mac walked out of the bathroom at the Lake House. He had just tied Stone to the toilet.

He asked Anna "How did you manage that?"

"Sent in The Intern."

"You ever gonna tell me who that really is? I hear about this guy but never see him."

"When he's ready- good enough- you will."

"If he got the painting back that quick, I'd say he's not bad."

"It's his good looks," she said with a smile, glad he had no idea Maxie had joined the family business, "no one would suspect his motives are so nefarious. I'm going to meet up with him and get it back, then hand it over to Faith. You stay here with our guest."

"Baby sitting duty? You got to be kidding me."

"I don't kid about work, you know that." She headed for the door. "Make him hot chocolate and cookies. Play Daddy Mac. I am sure he will be asking to be adopted before the night is done."

Mac shook his head. "Fine you go off and have all the fun without me. I have some punishment in mind for Young Cates anyway."

"You better be nice. He's a good friend of Sweet Caroline."

Mac smiled. "I can teach him a lesson without laying a hand on him."

"You have fun with that."

Mac followed her toward the door. "Be careful with Faith. She's a loose cannon on a good day, and I ain't seen her have one of those in years."

XXXXXXXXXX

Faith slid bullets into her revolver, slowly, one by one until the chamber was loaded.

_That bitch is late_, she thought. Anna should have been here forty-five minutes ago.

A smile curved her lips as she imagined Sonny's expression when he realized his fortune was gone, never to be recovered. He would lose his mind and then, in his madness, all of his territory. It would be a glorious downfall to watch.

She burst out laughing. In a sing song voice she cried "Mine, mine, mine. It's all mine! You lose, Sonny boy. You lose."


	28. The End is Always the Tricky Part

**Scorpio's Eight**

**Chapter Twenty Eight**

**The End is Always the Tricky Part**

Zander was dressed as the pool boy, Teddy, in his surfer shirt and blonde wig. He had _The Ever Faithful_ in his hand and was coming down the stairs at Greystone when he stopped dead in his tracks.

In the foyer, next to the passed out bodies of two drugged gaurds of Sonny's, was Frank Gianni, the Chicago mob boss who Zander had sent away ten minutes before, and two of his goons. Both goons had guns pointed at Zander, the door behind them had been kicked in.

Frank said "Something smelled fishy. No gaurds outside. The gate open. Not even Corinthos is that lax. That bad smell, Mr. Pool Man, its you. Get down here."

Zander's eyes darted back and forth. If he reached for his gun, he could be shot before he even pulled it out. In his mind, he pictured Gia, standing in the living room of their brownstone earlier tonight. Her eyes had begged him not to go, just as her lips had been begging for years for him to leave this con artist life behind.

_This is the last job_, he told her._ Right after this last job, I'm out. _

How many times had he promised that? Every time it was nothing more than a lie- one he had to tell to keep her, one he told easily because he was a liar at heart. The only true thing in his world was his love for her, and for their baby that grew inside of her. He thought that might save him, from his own destructive ways, he thought that might be enough.

Maybe nothing could save him now. Because he damn sure was not about to hand over this painting to some out of town mafioso who would probably put a bullet in the back of his head as a thank you. Hell with that.

Zander turned and dived upstairs, just as the goons opened fire. Jason and Lucky, wearing black masks, came running through the patio door, after having seen Gianni and his men enter the mansion on the surveillance Spinelli had set up.

They never liked having to kill anyone they didn't have to while on a job. Though Jason didn't care all that much if he had to send a whole slew of men to their Maker, Boss frowned on any of them committing murder in the first. What they did with their long con , he always said, was a form of art, a craft, a beautiful illegal dance that only the very cunning could learn the steps to. Blowing wholes in guys, well that was cheating. Unless it was absolutely necessary. Tonight it was.

Jason aimed for the knees, cutting both men down. Then yelled at Frank Gianni "On the floor! Now."

Frank Gianni stared them down. He was The Man in Chicago. The number one. He got on his knees for no one.

Lucky grabbed the back of his neck and forced him to the ground. "Move your ass, old man."

XXXXXXXXXXX

Anna walked into Faith's hotel room. She saw the blonde, squeezed into a short red dress, sitting on the glass topped table. Her feet rested on a chair in front of her. The gun dangled loosely in her hand, as if it was toy, but Anna knew it wasn't any prop.

_This chick is cracked,_ Anna thought.

She regretted ever taking a job for Faith but at the time all Anna could see was a way to best Robert.

"Your painting."

Faith slowly got to her feet. "Hand it over."

"First, my payment."

"No, first my painting. I want to see the code for the account," Faith countered. "The last person who double crossed me was my lying whore of a first husband, and he learned his lesson the very hard and painful way. But I learned mine too. You might say I have trust issues now."

"Fine." Anna slammed the painting against the desk, breaking the frame and then pulled out the paper that was wedged inside. She passed it to Faith."We good?"

Faith studied the paper. She slowly raised the gun.

Anna got ready to go for her weapon, while silently cursing herself for ever doing a gig in her own backyard. That was a mistake an amateur would make. Or someone like Robert and Luke, so cocky they think they can get away with stealing the Declaration of Independence in broad daylight in a room full of tourists. _With the right con_, she could hear Luke saying, _it could be done_.

Faith had her gun pointing at Anna, but she was holding it loosely like it was a cute accessory.

"Unhappy?" Anna asked "You got your numbers. Pay me or shoot me. I don't have all night."

"You...did good. Lucky for you. Because if you didn't, you would be dead right now."

"Yes," Anna said dryly, as she eased her hand off the back of her pants, where her gun was shoved. "Lucky me."

Faith set down her gun and then picked up a briefcase full of cash to pay Anna. Anna took it and headed for the door.

Faith called out, her tone low and deadly, with nothing idle about her threats "Mrs. Scorpio, don't talk. Not to the cops. Not to my ex. You so much as whisper my name to anyone, ever..._.ever._...and you will be one dead thief."

XXXXXXXXXXX

Zander had decided to take his second choice for exiting the mansion. He jumped from the balcony into the pool.

Jason kept a gun on the mobsters while Lucky went upstairs to hunt down Zander. He couldn't find him but noticed an open door off the master bedroom that lead to the balcony. He walked out there and looked down in time to see Zander jogging across the lawn, and throwing himself over the stone wall.

Lucky ran back downstairs. He pulled out his cell phone and pretended to make a call. "Yeah, I got Frank Gianni and two of his boys eating granite here. You want I should handle this?...As you wish." He hung up. He bent down and placed his gun at the back of Frank's neck. Jason had his weapon covering the goons, who he had already stripped of their guns. Both goons were whimpering and bleeding.

Frank Gianni said "Who do you work for? Get your fucking boss on the phone right now. This isn't how things are done. You as good as dead. Sonny better hope he's six feet under cause I will shove his head up his intestines, I ever catch up to that punk ass. Coming into his house and getting shook down like this. Bullshit. You better stand down. Now." He tried to stand up. Lucky held him down.

"How you gonna plot to take out Corinthos when you might not be walking out of here tonight?" Lucky asked, his tone cold and devoid of feeling. He cocked his weapon and placed it against of the back of Frank's head.

The mob boss pissed his pants.

Lucky said "Consider this a gift from Lorenzo Alcazar. You are free to go. Get on that road out front and keep going till you pass the city limits. Mr. Alcazar wants to speak to you, he'll find you. As you can see, he is now running things both his territory and Corinthos'. Do not show up uninvited in his town again."

Inside he congratulated himself on his awesome acting abilities. He really could have been, he figured, the next Brando if he had stuck with living the straight life. But this was much more fun.

Lucky and Jason ran back out of the mansion and soon were back inside the van. As soon as they jumped in, Spinelli floored it and they went flying down the access road next to the lake.

"Turn on the damn headlights, Jackal!" the Hitter yelled. "Damn, who taught you to drive? Carly?"

Zander was in the back seat, with his shirt off cause it was soaking wet. "Well, that was _close_."

Lucky pushed his shoulder. "You couldn't take the window as your first choice out of there? Huh? Idiot." Lucky smiled.

"Oh, poor Romeo, had to get blood on his new black outfit. You couldn't make your share by flirting with old women this time- pity," Zander teased. "Ask me if I give a damn."

Lucky glared at him.

Zander said, holding up The Ever Faithful, "Look at me. I gots 220 million dollars, baby. How you like me now?"

Now that the job was over the adrenaline was flowing hard and fast in him, making him act maniac.

"220 million dollar dollar bills, you all. Dollar dollar bills, you all." Zander did a little dance in his seat.

"Gag him," Jason said to Lucky.

Zander joked, in his pool boy voice, "Like, dude, that is just so harsh. Be cool." He said the next word very slow "Chill..."

"I hate The Kid after jobs," Lucky said to Jason.

"Yeah, me too," Jason agreed.

Spinelli turned a corner, squealing all the tires. Jason cried "Drive like a normal human, not a sixteen year old who stole their parents keys. No more wheel man for you, ever."

"But Hitter-" Spinelli protested.

"Don't but Hitter me."


	29. What's Its Like to Have to Lose

**Scorpio's Eight**

**Chapter Twenty** **Nine**

**What its Like to Lose**

Luke had been tasered by that brat Maxie Jones, and he could not believe she got the jump on him. It was one thing for Red to do it. She was a grown ass, fine ass, woman. A con. An explosives expert. Maxie was barely out of her baby shoes.

The paramedics had Luke and Jagger strapped onto gurneys, thinking they were having seizures, when Luke finally was able to speak again. "Hey, guys, I'm fine. Me and my buddy just drank some bad Jose Cuervo. That worm will get you every time."

"Sir, you need to be transported to the hospital."

"Nah, I'm cool. Save the medical mumbo jumbo for sick people. The only disease I got is trusting the wrong blondes. Got a cure for that?" Luke unstrapped himself and crawled out of the ambulance.

Jagger was hopping out of the one next to him, unsteady on his feet. "That little bitch," he hissed. "I always hook up with the crazy bitches."

They headed back inside, and locked the door. The place had about an inch of water on the floor.

Luke pointed at him. "No one finds out about this. Hear me? I will never hear the end of it. The painting was ruined when the sprinklers went off accidently. That's our story and we are sticking to it."

"I've never had a broad get the better of me. All my jobs and this...is a real first. Damn! Why do the nutty ones all fall for me?"

Luke sloshed through the water and went to fix himself a drink. "That broad didn't fall for you. She conned you. Take it like a man." He raised his glass, nodded it toward Jagger, and then downed it.

His cell rang. "Give me good news, man... Gianni? You handled it? Good. And the package is secure?...See you soon." Luke hung up. He smiled at Jagger. "Rack one more up for the bad guys."

XXXXXXXXX

Stone was planning to kill his brother or at least beat the shit out of him. Or yell at him. Yep, he had a few real choice words in mind.

Thanks to Jagger's refusal to head back home to Boston, where they belonged, Stone currently found himself handcuffed to a toilet. Dangling over his head, tied to a rope, was a baby alligator, that kept snapping at him. It wasn't quite close enough to bite him or quite big enough to draw much blood if it did. But the effect each time he heard it make a chomping sound was enough to send chills down his spine.

"Come on, man!" He called out to Mac, who sat in the other room, watching a football game. "This isn't funny anymore. Who has an alligator as a pet?"

It wasn't Mac's pet. It was on loan from a buddy of his who trafficked illegal exotic animals. He had called him up as soon as Anna left. Every time Stone complained, Mac smiled.

Mac called out. "His name is Cannibal. Say hello, Stone. He's real friendly."

Stone looked up, the baby alligator was withering all around. He was sure that it would slip lose of the rope at any minute and fall on him. "Bomber! Come on! Come on. Call this quits. I learned my lesson."

Mac walked to the bathroom door. He took a swig off the beer he was holding. "For taking my score? Maybe. For messing with my daughter? Not yet." He flipped off the light and closed the door.

Now Stone couldn't even see if the slimey little baby alligator was getting closer to him.

Jagger was gonna pay for this big time. They would be listening to Stone's choice of music in the Hummer for years to come.

XXXXXX

Jax was even drunker now then when he first stepped onto Ned's yatch earlier in the evening. Lois was pissed as hell at how things were going. While Jax was drinking like it was his last night on earth, Ned was pacing and shaking. His eyes darted all around, and he jumped every time the slightest gust of wind hit the boat.

_And these two are my partners_, she thought._ Pathetic! I have worked too damn hard, put up with Sonny for too many months, pretended to love his cheating ass and want to bear his babies for too long to have this all fall about now. I am getting my money and my revenge._

She could still remember what it felt like when Sonny told her, twenty years before in Bensonhurst, that he planned to run away with Connie. Lois had slept with him the night before. No, they weren't a couple. But Connie was a good girl, she didn't spread her legs for the local boys. So Sonny shared his bed with his best girl friend Lois, and never noticed when she gave him her heart along with her body. The day he walked away from her for Connie changed Lois. A bitterness she could never quite shake entered her bones. Till this day she was angry, she felt betrayed. And now she would betray Sonny back.

"Sit down, Nedly!" Jax called out in an annoyed tone. "You are making me dizzy with all your pacing."

"Sure, its my pacing. Not your downing of that champagne. Celebrating a little early, don't you think, Jasper?"

"Its in the bag," Jax said with a sly smile.

_These two better not mess up my plans_, Lois thought.

Just then Faith came clicking down the stairs on her three inch red heels. The first thing they all noticed was she was not carrying a painting.

Ned felt his stomach turn over. Jax said they had to kill Faith tonight. It was the only way to get the 220 million for themselves. She was too deadly to let live. But Ned didn't think he could do it. Still breaking free of his grandfather's control sounded like Heaven...for that maybe he could risk damning his soul to Hell.

_Jax said, "One life...for all that dough...it's a small price to pay and you know it. But if you want out...if you want to forever be under the thumb of your family...never have your own fortune to use as you see fit...you can get out now. I can do what needs to be done and gladly spend the whole 200 million on my own. If you want out...say so now, Nedly."_

"_I'm in."_

_(God forbid _

_you ever had to walk a mile in his shoes_

_  
'Cause then you really might know what it's like_

_to sing the blues _

Then you really might know what it's like...) ( Everlast) 

Ned opened his mouth to greet Faith, carefully as he did everything around this mad woman, but Lois spoke first. "This is a private party, sweetie. Ned can't service you tonight. Shoo, kay?"

Ned's head whipped around to stare at Lois. Had she flipped her ever loving lid? She might get her head shot off before they could even ask Faith if she received the painting from Anna.Ned wouldn't be surprised if Luke and Robert beat Anna to it. Thank God, they had hired every thief they could find in town. Nothing like being over prepared, the corporate world had taught him

Faith snapped at Lois. "That was one."

Lois rolled her eyes.

Faith added, "You get to three and you won't have eyes to roll at me anymore, _sweetie."_

Jax asked Faith "Are we good to go or not?_"_

Ned knew this was the code line that signaled he was supposed to get ready to pull out the gun Jax gave him, as soon as Faith said yes.

Meanwhile Lois couldn't figure out what the hell was going on. Back on the boat Jax told her that the fourth person in this partnership was his brother Jerry, a bumbling gigolo who was known to do just about anything to scheme his way into extra cash, except work a nine to five job that is. Jax told her to keep the fact that she knew the fourth person a secret from Ned, and that once Jerry came in with the painting they would copy down the numbers and then give Ned a fake set of account numbers. Jax and Lois would split whatever was in the accounts equally, which she figured had to be at least 50 million bucks, and Ned would be out of luck. A nice payback for cheating on her with Katherine Bell, a bonus in this whole plan, she figured.

But now it looked like Faith was somehow involved. Lois fumed because Jax had kept this fact from her. Another man who did her wrong. Would they ever learn not to mess with a bitch from Bensonhurst?

(_They call her a killer,_

_and they call her a sinner  
and they call her a whore._

_  
God forbid you ever had to walk a mile in her shoes  
'Cause then you really might know what it's like_

_to have to choose  
_

_Then you really might know what it's like_)

Instead of saying yes to Jax's question _Are we good to go or not_? asked lazily with a slight slur and easy smile, Faith answered "Go."

With shaking hands Ned fumbled in his pocket and pulled out the small snub nosed .22, but by the time he did Faith had a gun pointing at his head and Jax had one on Lois.

"Wha...what's," stumbled Ned "going on here... Jax?"

Titling his head to the side, in a sinister tone, the Aussie answered "This is what you call a double cross."

(Then you really might know what it's like...  
Then you really might know what it's like...

to have to lose)

_**Note- a baby alligator is approximately one foot long. It should probably never be hung by its tail from a rope over someone's head, in case of grave consequences for the animal and the person**_


	30. Roll You Like You Were Dice

_**Thanks for reading this and reviewing. **_

**Scorpio's Eight**

**Chapter Thirty**

**Roll You Like You Were Dice**

In the cabin of Ned's yatch stood four very anxious and distrusting people.

Lois didn't know what this psycho Faith Roscoe Corinthos was doing here but she sure didn't like the idea of splitting her share of the stolen money another way. It was one thing to bring Jerry into it, as Jax had said, because he was basically a stud for hire, a sexy but harmless gigolo who would be happy if they tossed one million his way. But Faith, no she was an entirely different story. She was even more dangerous to mess with than Sonny. Lois had no problem scheming to bring down the men that made her suffer, but if she tussled with Faith, well, you better kill her because if you don't you will never have a peaceful night of sleep again.

_What could Jax have been thinking involving her_? Lois asked herself. _And Ned is sleeping with this tramp. They all are in on this together, and I'm the odd one out. I don't freaking think so! I was the only one screwing Sonny. I am the only one who deserves whatever amount of money he has stashed off shore. I more than earned every penny of it- on my back_.

"Are we good to go or not?" Jax asked lazily with a slight slur and easy smile.

Faith answered "Go."

Ned fumbled in his pocket and pulled out the small snub nosed .22, but by the time he did Faith had a gun pointing at his head and Jax had one on Lois.

"Wha...what's," stumbled Ned "going on here... Jax?"

Titling his head to the side, in a sinister tone, the Aussie answered "This is what you call a double cross."

Ned felt his stomach lurch into his mouth, and he nearly threw up. His already clammy skin got colder, his thumping headache made him feel dizzy. He would either be a murderer or a murder victim tonight.

_Oh my God_, he thought, _No amount of money is worth this._

But it was too late to get out. He was holding on gun on his lover and she had one aimed right between his eyes.

"Why?" Ned croaked out. He knew he sounded weak and pathetic, not really fit for the criminal life, and he wasn't. He longed to be back in the boardroom or on the stage. Even listening to a lecture from Edward. Anywhere but here.

His eyes darted over to Lois. She wasn't shaking, her eyes burned with a quiet rage.

"You are a business man," Jax said "You know numbers. Two ways is better than four. Nothing personal."

"So you have the account number then?" Lois asked Faith.

"Shut up, you Brooklyn whore. Just die silently, why don't you?" Faith sneered.

"You don't have jack," Lois taunted. "If you did you wouldn't have come here. You'd be halfway to the islands to get your money."

Faith angrily told her "Maybe I wanted to kill the slut whose had her low class ass up in my husband's bed for months first. Your death was worth the delay."

"You suddenly love Sonny again? I doubt it," Lois said. " No, you needed me to get you inside information so you used me all these months. You didn't care that I was humping him every night and twice on Sundays. This is not about revenge against me right now. This is about not leaving any witnesses. After you get Jax to kill me and Ned, then you kill him. A one way spilt is better than two, and you are too selfish to go halvies with anybody."

Lois looked Jax right in his eyes, ignoring the gun her lover had pointed at her chest. "You will live five minutes longer than me, if you stick with her. That's not me trying to talk my way out of this. It's fact. You know it. You feel it. She's not capable of sharing...never has been."

Jax's eyes jerked back and forth between Lois and Faith. He didn't look forward to becoming a killer tonight, and to temper his unease at the thought, he knocked back drink after drink. Now he was drunk, running on adrenaline and fear, and unable to do the one thing he was really an expert at: see all the angels.

Lois said "Shoot her, Jax. Shoot her! Now!"

XXXXXXXXXX

Skye insisted on taking Robert to Robin and Patrick's apartment to be checked out. She assumed the tranquilizer Anna gave him was harmless but she wouldn't feel better until a doctor told her that her surrogate father was in good health.

Robert grumbled, as he sat on their couch, "I told you I'm fine. Anna is out there, somewhere, gloating over getting the best of me. I need to go find my lovely ex and tell her that I'm not the old goat she thinks I am."

"Sure you do, Dad," Robin said, as she took his blood pressure. "Later. Right now you need to relax."

"Relaxing is not in the Scorpio's blood," Robert answered. "We don't have the DNA for it."

"Sir," Patrick said.

Robert cringed at the term. Patrick was a straight. He lived by the laws of the land. How pedestrian. And it was a damn shame too. As a former Nascar driver, Patrick Drake would have made a great wheel man.

Patrick went on "Your daughter is just concerned about you and if you walk out of her before she is satisfied that you are okay, she'll keep me up all night worrying about you. So for me, for your granddaughter, for the good of our patients tomorrow who need doctors who have had more than two hours sleep, please let Robin examine you."

"Fine, Drake. Whatever. Just hurry, will you? Cause I got a score to settle and I can't do it sitting on your couch."

XXXXXXXXXXX

Spinelli parked the van in the garage of a safe house and the men all climbed into a blue SUV. They made their way to Luke's Club.

When they walked in, Jason raised an eyebrow. "What in holy hell happened in here?"

Luke and Jagger were clearly wasted. Luke was playing the piano and Jagger was singing , bitterly, his words loud and angry "She'll let you take her home -it whets her appetite. She'll lay you on her throne  
She's got Bette Davis eyes.

She'll take a tumble

on you-  
roll you like you were dice  
until you come up blue.

She's  
got Bette Davis eyes.

She'll expose you

when she snows you  
off your feet with the crumbs that she throws you.

She's ferocious and she knows just  
what it takes to make a pro blush.

All the boys think she's a spy -  
she's got Bette Davis eyes.) ( Kim Carnes lyrics)

Zander and Spinelli, who had been best friends for years, exchanged a look, before joining in "And she'll tease you, she'll unease you  
All the better just to please you  
She's precocious, and she knows just  
What it takes to make a pro blush  
All the boys think she's a spy, she's got Bette Davis eyes."

Jason sighed. He worked with some real lunatics. Especially when they were drinking. And Spinelli didn't even need to be drinking to be weird. Jason checked his watch to see if he could call Carly yet. She was supposed to ditch Sonny by now. He pulled out his cell phone and headed for the back room to make his call.

Lucky walked up to the bar, reached over and grabbed a bottle of vodka. He opened it and slugged back one shot. Then set it down. He wondered what Emily was up to right now. She had only been his wife a few days but he found that he loved her more each second. It was beyond what he ever thought he could feel. Sure conning was fun, nearly the best thrill of his life, but loving her was better. He called her, just as his father and friends started in on a new song.

"An angel's smile is what you sell  
You promise me heaven, then put me through hell!

Chains of love got a hold on me.  
When passion's a prison, you can't break free.

You're a loaded gun.  
There's nowhere to run  
No one can save me the damage is done!

Shot through the heart and you're to blame  
You give love a bad name.

I play my part and you play your game  
You give love a bad name  
You give love a bad name"

Lucky shook his head at their horrible rendition of that Bon Jovi song, but understood that after a job there was a lot of steam to blow off. He listened as the phone rang in his ear. Emily answered, happily saying, "Lucks."

"Hey, Emmy."

"A good night?"

"A profitable one."

"And now I can get my real honeymoon, right? You and me, wearing next to nothing, on my family yatch for as many days as I want, sailing to wherever I want, and I get to do to you whatever my pretty little head can think up. Remember promising me that, hubby?"

"Perfectly."

She had been doing a private strip tease for him. With each piece of clothes she took off, she negotiate for one more thing on her wish list, knowing that when she was naked, and he was dying to make love to her, she could get him to agree to anything. Even not working for a while, which was hard as hell for a con man. They needed the rush. But Emily thought she was a pretty good rush for Lucky, in her own way. Though they had been together since middle school, it never got stale between them. Each time his eyes met hers in bed, she felt more alive than the time before, the connection only deepened with each day.

"So when do we leave?" Emily asked

Jason walked out of the backroom, wearing a dead serious expression that could only mean one thing : Carly was in trouble. Jason yelled "Hey!"

The music immediately stopped.

"Lets go. Carly has two dead bodies on her bedroom floor."


End file.
